How about this?: In col D of your original data use =RIGHT(B2,4). Then change the font of the text in col B "Fake SSN" to match the cell color (e.g. White Text on white background) so it isn't visible. If you need to see the entire SSN all you need to do is click/arrow to col B. You could even shrink the col to a small size, say 0.1 so it's not obvious to a casual observer but you can still arrow over to the cell ans see it.
This not might seem very "techy" but it worked! I used the =CONCATENATE("***-**-", RIGHT(F7,4)) to get the last four format, copied and pasted the column in word, which removed the formula and kept the numbers correct and repasted them into a new column in excel and was able to delete the other two. No having to worry about hiding the original column or anything like that.
I received a great workbook from Rico S. His macro would change the first 7 characters of the cell to white font and 1 point font. Anyone looking in the grid or printing would see the last 4. The formula bar would show all.
Add a column and use the formula =replace(A1,1,7,""), the result is a cell with just the last 4 SSN numbers showing, the original column can be hidden to keep it out of view. You could also use IF(LEN(A1=7),REPLACE(A1,1,5,""),REPLACE(A1,1,7,"")) this would fix the issue if the incoming text is not formatted as a SSN but as just 7 numbers without the "-", also if you had a combination of both numbers in the same column. Just my thoughts not using VBA code
What about an event driven macro the change the display format according if the cell is selected or not or may be on a mouse double klick, in VBA form some filed can be set as password mode displaying asterisk
I think this is the solution you just mention from Rico S. Selecting a cell, in the formula bar highlight the first 7 characters (assuming text separated by - ), and apply white font color. Unfortunately, Format Painter will not copy over to other cells; so it would need to be done for each cell. In vba this code works: set rng = ActiveSheet.range("B3:B22") rng.Characters(Start:=1, Length:=7).Font.Color = vbWhite I think beyond that, one would need to create an entire new font for "*" only and apply that font to the first 7 characters. Maybe that font already exists somewhere!
This is low-tech compared to the other solutions, but I guess that's what you're aiming for... If the number is formatted as text, you can just right align it, and shrink the column until only the last 4 digits are visible (assuming there's some data in the column to the left, like in your example). Then click in the cell to see the full SSN in the formula bar if needed. The only downside is this won't work if it's formatted as a number, and that distinction is pretty finicky for non-Excel users - but it looks like you're expecting it to be formatted as text.
How about using MOD? Create a checkbox somewhere on the sheet that causes the MOD to be 10,000 (last 4) if checked and 1 billion if not checked (entire SSN). If the full SSNs are text, then first use SUBSTITUTE to get rid of the hyphens. You could probably also create a macro with a keyboard shortcut to change the MOD from 10,000 to 1 billion.
Place names and full number on separate sheet. Put the correspondinglist of names only in column A. In column B use an IF statement to populate the column. For the condition D1="" return for TRUE =TEXTAFTER with the second iinstace of delimiter (-), for FALSE the full SSN from the column on the second sheet. By default D1 is empty so the resut of TEXTAFTER (last 4) would show. If you type any character in D1 the full SSN values would be shown. No one else looking at the sheet would know D1 would reveal the full SSN and you would not need to remember what character would unlock the full SSN. Alternatively in cell D1 use XLOOKUP with the lookup vaulue being the name, lookup array, the names on second sheet and return array the full SSN column. Include a provision to return blank if D1 is blank. The name could be typed, pasted or selected from dropdow. This XLOOKUP approach would reveal onlya single zt a time which might be what you want. SSN
