Format block of cells to not show entire SSN?

[Kelley]

I've tried custom formatting, but nothing changes....please help!

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

What do they look like now and what do you want them to look like. Is the
only thing in the cell the SSN?

You can hide any entry in a cell by using the custom format ;;; (three
semi-colons)

 

[Dave Peterson]

There's no formatting (numberformatting) that will hide parts of the SSN.

You could treat it as text (preformat the cell as text or start with a leading
apostrophe) and make parts white on white (say) and the value would be visible
in the formula bar, but look as a partial SSN in the cell.

Or you could use a different cell to extract the portion that you want (maybe
=mid()).

But...

If you're sharing this with others who should not see the SSN's, don't do this.
You could hide the cell with the actual SSN and protect the sheet, but worksheet
protection is very easily broken--or someone could just write a formula to see
the value in that hidden cell.

It would be better to just enter the portion of the SSN that can be shared with
others.