excel trick? drop down list then other cells invisible, can't work out how made it

AmyZ

New Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2021
Messages
2
Office Version
  1. 2016
Platform
  1. Windows
Dear All

I come across a excel template which created few years ago, the person who created it has left the job. the template has a drop down list, you can select either subscription or purchase. the magic to me is, if you select purchase, some other cells text became invisible, the cells are still there, just you see blank cells. but if you click the cell, you will see the text in the formula bar. if you select subscription, you will see the whole set of cell text appeared again. I try to work out how it has been created for days and googles all possible solutions, no answer at all.

it's not a dependent drop down list. I also review if there is formula on those cells, nothing, just plain text

would be great if any of you contribute your thoughts as some of the cells does not work properly, i.e. when you select purchase, cells still visible. I need to amend the template and share it with other shortly.

Much appreciated your ideas.

Thanks
 

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Hi AmyZ,

It's most likely Conditional Formatting which changes the font to white, hence making it invisible against a white cell background.
 
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Hi & welcome to MrExcel.
It sounds as though it's using conditional formatting to change the colour of the font.
 
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You guys are amaaaaaaaaasing!! ??Yes, it is conditional formatting! I can see the rules on conditional formatting. I am so pleased find this forums! I can't get any helps at workplaceo_O

There comes another question, there are more than 40 cells I need to amend the rules. I assume I have to manually correct each rules, is there other quicker way I can amend or not? I hope I have explained clearly what I am trying to do, but if there no other solution, I will manually amend each rule.......
Thanks again, you guys saved my life.
 
Upvote 0
There comes another question, there are more than 40 cells I need to amend the rules. I assume I have to manually correct each rules, is there other quicker way I can amend or not?
You're welcome!

Apart from using Conditional Formatting (CF), Manage Rules I don't know of easier shortcuts to amending CF settings, but I will give a couple of tips:

One challenge I've seen is ending up with is Manage Rules showing almost duplicate settings but with slightly different "Applies to" ranges because a slightly different range was selected for one of the CFs or changes to a CF. To avoid that I select the range and use Formulas, Define Name to give it a name, such as zz. Then when I want to make a change I do Ctrl-G and enter zz so it selects the range again. You can also use this for non-contiguous cells by holding down Ctrl and left-clicking each cell you want and then Define Name.

If you're using formulae to decide the TRUE or FALSE for a CF then debugging it in the CF, Manage Rules can be tricky. I always use a grid off to one side to test the TRUE/FALSE first. In this case once I see it's working I just use the formula in J5 as the CF rule.

Cell Formulas
RangeFormula
J5:L11J5=AND($E5="Dog",F5>5)
Named Ranges
NameRefers ToCells
zz=Sheet1!$F$5:$H$11J5
Cells with Conditional Formatting
CellConditionCell FormatStop If True
F5:H11Expression=AND($E5="Dog",F5>5)textNO
 
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