custom format for cells with nothing in them without using conditional formatting

custom format for cells with nothing in them without using conditional formatting if a cell is blank I would like to add text using a custom format. I've seen where text is added if a value is above or below a certain value. Can you add text to the cell if the cell is blank? I've tried the following with no luck
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 267

Total answers/comments: 2

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Guest [Entry]

"Well, it can be done, and it can't. You can make it look like the format you require, as in the picture below. Cell C3 and Cell C5 are formatted identically, with a value in C5:

When you enter the text into the cell, in this case C5 the text disappears. The secret is in the one pixel column, Column B. B3 contains ""Enter value"" and is formatted red, bold. It's a cheat, but I have used it to good effect."

Guest [Entry]

"Just to add to the answer provided by @dendarii -- you can add a fourth, for text. For example, with this number formatting:

""My Positive Number"";""My Negative Number"";""My Zero"";""My Text""

...the cell will display ""My Text"" if any non-numeric text is entered.

However, unfortunately there isn't a fifth option for blank cell.

So if your scenario allows having, say, a space character in the cell by default, then you could do it with that fourth option. But if the user deletes that space character from the cell, leaving it blank, your custom display text goes away."