IPad Numbers - Hiding zero value

[Elinrichbrad]

Hi just wondering if anyone can tell me how to hide zero values in cells to tidy up my spreadsheets as I'm creating new invoices for work and want them to look as good as possible.

Thanks

 

[twerppoet]

For entry fields all you can do is select the cells and choose Delete. Unfortunately that also resets the cell to the default format; which may or may not matter to you. You can then select the blank cell, format it, and copy (or fill) it back to the now blank cells without the zero reappearing (usually).

If you are worried about messing up the spread sheet, do your tweaking on copy when you are preparing to print.

For equations, you can imbed your formula in an IF statement that tests to see if the result is non-zero, then use the else portion to esle (is zero) part of the statement to enter a null text string (use the abc button). This is weird looking, since you have to enter the function twice. Once as the condition and second as the equation.

 

[P A U L]

I found this thread trying to figure out how to prevent 0s across my sheet. It was very useful. Until I realized sometimes I actually need a zero displayed.

is it possible so that when a source cell is empty, then the target cell is empty..BUT..when there is a 0 in source, then target also displays 0?

 

[twerppoet]

It’s important to understand the difference between a ‘0’ and a null entry. A ‘0’ is a value either entered or computed. Null means the cell contains no value.

Formula fields will always display either a value or an error (if the formula performs an illegal action like division by ‘0’).An empty data field is typically a null, meaning it has no assigned value, and so it appears blank until some data is entered. This happens even if you’ve assigned a value type for the field (number, text, etc).

Of course, you can also use an if statement similar to the one mentioned to display a ‘0’ instead of a null.

The only way I can think of to force a data field to display ‘0’ is to assign the value when creating the spreadsheet. This can be done by copying a cell with the ‘0’ value and pasting it to all the other cells that should be ‘0’ by default.

One of the ways I create a spread sheet is to do all the work in the first row, then copy/paste that row to however may columns I want to display. If the first row is created with default values, those values will be pasted into the remaining rows. When you creat more rows later if/when the spreadsheet needs to expand, just copy past the last empty row.

Keep in mind that when you delete a value from a cell, it returns to the null value, not a zero. You get a blank again.

If a cell has only a few possible values, you can choose to use a stepper or pop-up menu format. In each of these you can set a low or default value of ‘0’.

If there is a better way to do this, I don’t know of it.