XL2000: ;;; Number Format Fails to Hide Cell Contents

When you format a cell with the following number format:

the contents of the cell may still appear.

This problem occurs when the cell contains more than 1,024 characters.

To hide the contents of a cell that contains more than 1,024 characters, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell that contains characters you want to hide.
2. On the Format menu, click Conditional Formatting.
3. Under Condition 1, click Formula Is. Then, in the formula box, type =ISERROR(VALUE(address)) where address is the address of the active cell (for example, A1).
4. Click Format. Click the Font tab. Then, in the Color box, click white (or the color of the cell's background), and click OK.
5. Click OK.

Note that you still must apply the ;;; number format to the cell; the conditional formatting only hides the cell contents when the contents exceed 1,024 characters in length.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

In Microsoft Excel, you can hide the contents of a cell by applying the ;;; number format to the cell. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell(s) you want to format.
2. On the Format menu, click Cells. Then, click the Number tab.
3. In the Category list, click Custom. Then, in the Type box, type ;;;, and click OK.

When you format a cell with this number format, the characters in the cell are hidden, unless the contents exceed 1,024 characters in length.