Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Displaying a Count of Zeros on the Status Bar.
Jeremy's company is often interested in how many cells contain the value zero. He wonders if there is a way to customize the status bar to automatically display the COUNTIF formula. He knows he can see the results of functions such as AVERAGE, COUNT, SUM and others, but can't find a way to do a more complex COUNTIF display.
Unfortunately there is no way to modify the default functions available on the status bar. There are, however, some workarounds that you can consider. The obvious is to use a formula in a cell to evaluate the number of zeros in a range:
=COUNTIF(A1:E52,0)
You could also select the desired range and use the Find tool (Ctrl+F) to search for the number 0. If you click on Find All, the dialog box reports the number of occurrences in the selected range—the number of zeros.
If you prefer, you can create a short macro that will do the calculation and display it on the status bar. The following is an example of a macro that is run every time the selection is changed in the worksheet.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: 
Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
zCount = Application.WorksheetFunction.CountIf(Target.Cells,0)
Application.StatusBar = "Selection has " & CStr(zCount) & " zeros"
End Sub
All you need to do is make sure that you place this code within the code module for the worksheet you want affected. (Just right-click the worksheet's tab and choose View Code from the resulting Context menu. That's where the code should be placed.)
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6469) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Displaying a Count of Zeros on the Status Bar.
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