Excel Basics - Formula Bar - Class 4

Excel Basics - Formula Bar - Class

The Excel Formula bar is located above Excel Worksheet window, as shown in below image. Excel Formula bar has three components. 1) Cell Name Box 2) Formula bar buttons and 3) Cell contents.

The left most is called as "Cell Name Box", middle one is "Formula Bar Buttons" and right one is the contents of the Active Cell. Data or formula entered in the Active Cell will appear in right-most section.

Cell Name box : Left-most component of Excel Formula bar is called as Cell Name box. Cell Name box displays the address of the Active Cell. In the above image, Active Cell address is D5, which is shown in Cell Name box.

Formula bar buttons : The middle component of Formula bar is Formula bar buttons. There are three Formula bar buttons available. A Cancel (X) and Enter (tick mark) and an insert function button (fx). Cancel button and tick mark are enabled only when you edit a cell. Clicking the Cancel button will cancel your entry in the cell. Clicking the tick mark will insert the data in cell. The third button (right-most button) is insert function button (fx). Insert function button will display "Insert Function" dialog box, from where you can select a function from a list of available functions.

Cell contents : Right-most component of Excel Formula bar shows the content of Active Cell. It is very useful, if the contents of Active cell are long. It is difficult to view long cell data within an Excel cell.

You can see that the cell content of Active Cell is text "omnisecu.com". That content is displayed in Cell contents box.

See How to Hide / Show Formula Bar

Excel Formula Bar is shown in below image.

Sometimes you may need to hide Excel Formula Bar to make more room for your Excel worksheet or make the missing Formula Bar visible. You can hide Excel Formula Bar or show your missing hidden Excel Formula Bar, by following any of below methods.

Method 1 - Hide/Show Excel Formula bar from Excel Ribbon

To hide Excel Formula Bar or to show your missing hidden Excel Formula Bar from Excel Ribbon, follow these steps

Step 1 - Click on "View" Tab on Excel Ribbon.

Step 2 - Go to "Show" Group in Ribbon's "View" Tab.

Step 3 - Uncheck "Formula Bar" checkbox to hide Formula Bar

Or

Check "Formula Bar" checkbox to show missing hidden Formula Bar, as explained in below image.

As you can see from the below image, Excel Formula Bar is hidden now.

Method 2 - Hide/Show Excel Formula bar from "Excel Options" window

Click the following link if you are not familiar with Excel Options Dialog Box Window.

You can achieve the same results explained in above method, using "Excel Options" Window. Follow below steps to hide Excel Formula Bar or to show missing hidden Formula Bar.

Step 1 - Open "Excel Options" window from Excel Backstage View.

Step 2 - Open "Advanced" Panel in "Excel Options" window by clicking on it.

Step 3 - Scroll down to "Display".

Step 4 - Uncheck "Show formula bar" Checkbox to hide Formula Bar

Or

Check "Show formula bar" Checkbox to show hidden Formula Bar, as explained in below image.

Step 5 - Click "OK" button in Excel Options window.

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How to hide or show 

Excel Formula bar