Hide Formulas In Excel Without Sheet Protection

Stop Users Seeing Your Excel Formula

The normal method to stop formula viewing is to Hide Formulas via Format>Cells - Protection
and check Hidden. Then apply Worksheet Protection. You would normally check the Locked
box (checked by default) which would also prevent formula deletion.

TIP: Use F5 - Special to select specific cell types

The draw back with the standard method is that the entire Worksheet is protected and hence
stopping many other features from being used when not even in a formula cell. The VBA method
below, using Workbook_SheetSelectionChange, SpecialCells Method and the
UserInterFaceOnly Argument of the Protect Method . is a excellent work-around. Open the
VBE (Alt+F11) then double click ThisWorkbook to access the private module of the Workbook
Object.

What the code will do is Lock and Hide all Formula from viewing and protect the Worksheet by
only locking and hiding anytime a Selection contains one or more Formula cells. Only the
formula cells are Locked and Hidden. If there are no formulae cells in the selection, all cells
within are unlocked and not hidden.

Private Sub Workbook_SheetSelectionChange(ByVal Sh As Object, ByVal Target As

Range)

Dim rFormulaCheck As Range

On Error Resume Next

Sh.Unprotect Password:="Secret"

With Selection

.Locked = False

.FormulaHidden = False

End With

If Target.Cells.Count = 1 Then

If Target.HasFormula Then

With Target

.Locked = True

.FormulaHidden = True
 End With

Sh.Protect Password:="Secret", UserInterFaceOnly:=True

End If

ElseIf Target.Cells.Count > 1 Then

Set rFormulaCheck = Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas)

If Not rFormulaCheck Is Nothing Then

With Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas)

.Locked = True

.FormulaHidden = True

End With

Sh.Protect Password:="Secret", UserInterFaceOnly:=True

End If

End If

On Error GoTo 0

End Sub
To unhide

Private Sub Workbook_SheetSelectionChange(ByVal Sh As Object, ByVal Target As Range)

Dim rFormulaCheck As Range

On Error Resume Next

Sh.Unprotect Password:="Secret"

With Selection

.Locked = False

.FormulaHidden = False

End With

If Target.Cells.Count = 1 Then

If Target.HasFormula Then

With Target

.Locked = False

.FormulaHidden = False

End With

Sh.Protect Password:="Secret", UserInterFaceOnly:=True

End If

ElseIf Target.Cells.Count > 1 Then

Set rFormulaCheck = Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas)

If Not rFormulaCheck Is Nothing Then

With Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas)

.Locked = False

.FormulaHidden = False

End With

Sh.Protect Password:="Secret", UserInterFaceOnly:=True

End If

End If
 On Error GoTo 0

End Sub