Display internal links and/or formulae

**alpac1t** · 12-22-2023, 12:30 PM

It's hard for me to believe that I've been using Excel for as many years as I have, and have not had this question until now. For some reason I never thought of it, though the answer would have been helpful in hundreds of situations.

Is it possible to apply a sheet-wide option that causes Excel to visually differentiate between cells that have values and cells that contain either (a) links to other cells, and/or (b) formulae?

When you add a note or a comment to a cell, Excel puts a little marker in the top right corner of the cell. This little marker doesn't print, but shows in the cell to remind you that you have a comment/note.

I want something like that (the little marker) that means "this cell contains a link/formula instead of a value." It would be an option for the entire sheet or perhaps workbook.

I'm not especially committed to the little tick marks; any sort of cell-by-cell indicator of a link would be fine. The objective is to look at the sheet and quickly see where which cells are links/formulas versus those that have "hard" values.

Is there such a thing?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

**6StringJazzer** · 12-22-2023, 01:11 PM

You can create a conditional formatting rule using a formula

Formula:

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but the only kind of indicator it can do are cell formatting, such as fill color, text color, borders. You could do something like a colored border around cells with formulas.

**alpac1t** · 12-22-2023, 01:17 PM

Thanks for reply. Unfortunately, that approach won't work. If I have a sheet with 5000 cells and want to see those containing a formula, I can't do anything to individual cells. The solution has to apply to the sheet or workbook or a multi-cell selection.

**6StringJazzer** · 12-22-2023, 01:29 PM

Are you familiar with conditional formatting? A single conditional formatting rule can apply to an entire worksheet. For the example I gave the implementation would look like this. Formulas are in J2 and J3.

**alpac1t** · 12-22-2023, 01:38 PM

Good and creative thinking, 6StringJazzer. Yes, I'm familiar with conditional formatting; use it quite often. However, it won't work in this case because its results print. I don't want the formula indicator to be visible to anybody but me. Also, it doesn't cover the case of linked cells. But thanks for the idea.

**deadlyduck** · 12-22-2023, 03:02 PM

The Goto special dialog box [Find and select | Go to special] allows you to choose cells with formulas or constants. That could be used to identify the cells and you could choose to colour the background or font on a temporary basis if required.