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How to Hide Error Values When Printing an Excel Sheet

Tap each step to see how to hide formula error values when printing an Excel sheet.

  1. Open the "Page Layout" tab

    Click the "Page Layout" tab on the ribbon.

  2. Click "Print Titles"

    Click "Print Titles" in the "Page Setup" group.

  3. Go to the "Sheet" tab

    Select the "Sheet" tab inside the dialog box.

  4. Change the "Cell errors as" option

    Change the dropdown from "displayed" to "<blank>" so error values print as empty space instead.

  5. Why it helps

    It prevents cells with formula errors from printing as-is and looking messy, letting you produce a clean, presentable printed report.

This changes only what prints, not what's on screen

The "Cell errors as" setting inside Page Setup only affects the printed or print-preview output. On screen, while you're editing the workbook, formula error values like #DIV/0! or #N/A still display normally in their cells so you can find and fix the underlying issue.

A cleanup step, not a permanent fix

Hiding errors on the printed page is a formatting choice for presentation, not a way to resolve the underlying formula problem. For a report that will be reused or shared as a file (not just printed), wrapping the formula in something like IFERROR to display blank or a custom message is generally a more robust long-term solution than adjusting only the print setting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will this setting also hide errors when the file is opened by someone else, not just when printed?

No. This setting is specific to printing and print preview; anyone opening the actual Excel file will still see the raw error values displayed normally in their cells.

Can I make error cells show something other than blank when printed, such as a dash?

The built-in dropdown only offers a small set of choices like "displayed," "<blank>," "--," and "#N/A," so choosing "--" prints a dash instead of blank without needing to change the formula itself.