Have you ever been working in Excel and your Formula Bar goes missing?!

It can be such a pain when your Formula Bar keeps disappearing in Excel, especially when you are trying to check or create formulas and functions in the worksheet.

Thankfully but there are ways to easily get the Formula Bar back.

In this blog, I cover two ways to turn on your Excel Formula Bar:

How to temporarily turn on the Formula Bar in Excel
How to permanently turn on the Excel Formula Bar

Temporarily turning it on will mean your formula bar will only be on for your current session in Excel. The Formula Bar will disappear and be turned off the next time you log into Excel.

Permanently turning it on will mean your Formula Bar will be turned on in your current session and any other sessions you spend in Excel.

Show Formula Bar in Excel temporarily

In the example below, the Excel Formula Bar is missing when Excel is opened.

Excel spreadsheet with red box around missing Formula Bar

To show the Formula Bar in Excel, follow these steps.

Step 1: Go to the View tab.

Excel ribbon with the View tab shown in a red box

Step 2: Check the box next to Formula Bar.

In the View tab, the Formula Bar check box is shown in a red box

The Formula Bar should now be shown in Excel.

Excel spreadsheet with the Formula Bar shown in a red box

However, this only temporarily turns on the Formula Bar. When you exit out of Excel and re-open it, the Excel Formula Bar disappears again.

Excel spreadsheet with missing Formula Bar

Show Formula Bar in Excel permanently

To turn on the Formula Bar permanently, follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to the File tab.

Excel spreadsheet with the File tab shown in a red box

Step 2: Select Options.

In the File tab, the bottom left of Excel there is the Options button shown in a red box

An Excel Options dialogue box should now be displayed.

Step 3: Select Advanced.

Excel Options dialogue box with the option Advanced shown in a red box

Step 4: Scroll to Display and check the box next to Show formula bar.

Excel Options dialogue box with the option Show formula bar checked and shown in a red box

Step 5: Select OK.

Excel Options dialogue box with the OK options shown in a red box

Your formula bar should now be displayed every time you open Excel.

To sum up

There are two different options to show the Formula Bar in Excel. It can be turned on temporarily or permanently depending on what you are wanting.

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