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Allie94's avatar
Allie94
Copper Contributor
May 29, 2020

How to keep cells blank until data entered in

We have an Excel worksheet set up with formulas in place.  Right now, without any data entered, all the columns and rows show zero's.  We would like for the cells to remain blank until we enter data into them.  Is there a way to do this?  We're using Microsoft Office 13.  I'm attaching the document for reference. 

 

Thank you!

excel

8 Replies

  • SergeiBaklan's avatar
    SergeiBaklan
    Diamond Contributor
    May 29, 2020

    Allie94 

    One way is to apply custom number format like this to the cells

    Another way, if zero are not required in entire sheet, you may disable this setting

    • Allie94's avatar
      Allie94
      Copper Contributor
      May 29, 2020

      SergeiBaklan 

      Well, the tips do help with the 0's, but once I enter a # into the first column, then it carries that # all the way down the sheet.  We'd like to have the rows be blank until info is entered into each row.  It looks very "busy" to have the quantity going all the way down the page, and seems unneccesary.  If you know of any tips to help with that, I would really appreciate it.  I'm trying different settings, but not coming up with anything yet.  Thank you so much for the other tips!  I truly appreciate you taking the time to try to help me out. 

      • SergeiBaklan's avatar
        SergeiBaklan
        Diamond Contributor
        May 29, 2020

        Allie94 

        As variant you may modify your formulas a bit as

        =SUM(B14-D14+H14)
expand to
=SUM(B14-D14+H14)*D14*H14

=SUM(C14-E14+I14)
expand to
=SUM(C14-E14+I14)*E14*I14

        for all cells. With that formulas return zero (which is not shown) if not calculatable values have no values.

  • amit_bhola's avatar
    amit_bhola
    Iron Contributor
    May 29, 2020

    Allie94 , this article could help https://support.office.com/en-us/article/display-or-hide-zero-values-3ec7a433-46b8-4516-8085-a00e9e476b03

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