Excel is an incredibly powerful tool that allows you to organize and analyze large amounts of data quickly and efficiently. One of the most useful features of Excel is the ability to use formulas to perform calculations. But what if you no longer need these calculations, or if you want to share your spreadsheet without sharing your formulas? You may want to remove these formulas. In this article, we will be discussing how to remove formulas in Excel.
Step 1: Select the Cells
The first step to removing formulas in Excel is to select the cells that contain the formulas you wish to remove. You can select multiple cells by clicking and dragging your mouse over the cells you want to select. Alternatively, if you want to select all cells in the worksheet, you can press Ctrl+A on your keyboard.
Step 2: Copy the Cells
Once you have selected the cells, you need to copy them. You can do this by right-clicking on one of the selected cells and choosing Copy, or by pressing Ctrl+C on your keyboard.
Step 3: Paste the Values
After copying the cells, you need to paste them back into their original location, but this time, you will only paste the values, not the formulas. You can do this by first selecting the cells again, then right-clicking on one of the selected cells and choosing Paste Special.
In the Paste Special dialog box, select Values and then click OK.
This will paste only the calculated values of the cells, not the formulas that were used to calculate these values. The formulas have now been removed from the selected cells.
Using a VBA Macro
If you have a large number of cells from which you want to remove formulas, it might be more efficient to use a VBA macro. Below is an example of a simple VBA macro that can be used to remove formulas from the selected cells:
Sub RemoveFormulas()
Dim rng As Range
For Each rng In Selection
rng.Value = rng.Value
Next rng
End Sub
In the above code, we are cycling through each cell in the selection and replacing the cell’s formula with its value.
To use this macro, press Alt+F11 to open the VBA editor, insert a new module, and copy the above code into the module. You can then run the macro by pressing F5 while the VBA editor is still open, or by pressing Alt+F8, selecting the macro, and clicking Run when back in Excel.
Remember, it’s always prudent to back up your data before performing any changes. You might also want to try these steps on a small set of data first to make sure you understand how they work.