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Defined names, formulas, drop-down lists and formatting rules: the internal labels an Excel workbook shows

Last updated: 19 October 2026

How to delete defined names, and the hidden names Document Inspector cannot remove, is in hidden sheets, names and personal information; links to other workbooks are in Excel links and full paths. This page is about the labels themselves: where they sit and who can read them.

Where the labels sit

• Defined names. A name such as Bonus_Pool_JSmith or Project_Falcon_Costs says something on its own, and what it refers to can be a range, a constant or a formula. Names appear in the Name Manager and in the formulas that use them. In the file they are definedName elements in xl/workbook.xml; a name can also have a comment.
• Hidden names. Microsoft's page Hidden names found says such names "can store hidden information about Solver scenarios", for example "calculation parameters and other sensitive data". Microsoft's page Use the Name Manager in Excel says the Name Manager does not display hidden names; in the file, they carry a hidden attribute.
• Formulas. A formula can name a sheet (='Redundancy list'!B4), a table, a name, or another workbook with its path. The value on screen hides the formula; the formula bar shows it, unless the formula is set as hidden on a protected sheet (Microsoft's page Display or hide formulas). Hidden or not, the formula is stored in the file.
• Table names. A table has a name, such as tbl_Candidates_Rejected, used in formulas that refer to it; a table can have a comment too.
• Drop-down lists. Microsoft's page Apply data validation to cells describes typing the entries into the Source box, "separated by commas". Its page Create a drop-down list describes pointing the Source box at a range on another sheet, and suggests that if you want to prevent users from seeing that list, you "consider hiding and protecting that worksheet". Either way, the entries are in the file: in the validation rule itself, or on the hidden sheet.
• Conditional formatting rules. A rule can test for a name or a word, or use a formula that names a sheet. Microsoft's page Use conditional formatting to highlight information shows the route to them: Home › Conditional Formatting › Manage Rules opens the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager, which lists the rules for the selection or a chosen sheet.

Checking in Excel

1. On a copy, open Formulas › Name Manager and read the Name and Refers To columns. Rename or delete names that should not go, after searching the formulas that use them.
2. Show formulas (Formulas › Show Formulas) on each sheet and read them for sheet names, table names and file paths.
3. Select each cell with a drop-down and open Data › Data Validation; read the Source box. If it points at another sheet, unhide that sheet and read it. On a protected sheet some of these dialogs and formulas may not be available until you unprotect it, and workbook structure protection can stop sheets being unhidden (Protect a workbook); none of that removes what is stored.
4. Open Home › Conditional Formatting › Manage Rules, choose each sheet under Show formatting rules for, and read the rules.
5. For hidden names, which the Name Manager does not show, use Document Inspector on Windows (it finds them but, Microsoft says, cannot remove them) or the check below.

Microsoft's Document Inspector page lists "Comments for defined names and table names" among what its Document Properties and Personal Information inspector removes in Excel, and hidden names among what it finds but cannot remove. It also finds external references in cells and names, which it cannot remove. Its list does not describe a check for internal labels in ordinary names, formulas, validation lists or formatting rules.

What ScrubDrop does

ScrubDrop reads the .xlsx in your browser; the file is not uploaded. For free, from one file at a time, it reports counts and short samples of the defined names it finds (other than Excel's reserved ones), with their reference text, of hidden names and of formulas that point to other files, and removes comments on names and tables with the other comments. Read xl/workbook.xml, as below, to see every definition. Removing defined names, hidden names and links to other files is part of ScrubDrop Pro. Removing a defined name or a link to another workbook turns every cell formula on the sheets that stay into its last saved value, not only the formulas that used them; removing a hyperlink to a file on its own does not. If a drop-down list, a formatting rule or a remaining name would be left pointing at something removed, ScrubDrop refuses and says what to change in Excel first.

It does not rename anything, and it does not read sheet names, table names, the entries typed into a validation rule or the text of a formatting rule as hidden data: those are part of how the workbook works. Check them yourself.

How to check this yourself

1. Make a copy of the .xlsx, rename it to .zip and unzip it.
2. In xl/workbook.xml, read the definedNames element: each definedName has a name, and its text is what it refers to. A hidden="1" (or "true") marks a hidden name; a comment attribute is a comment.
3. The same file lists the sheet names in sheets.
4. In each file under xl/worksheets, read the <f> elements (formulas), dataValidation (the list is in formula1) and conditionalFormatting. Newer rules can also sit in an extLst at the end of the sheet.
5. Table names are in the files under xl/tables, in the name and displayName attributes.

These parts and elements are defined in ECMA-376 Part 1 (SpreadsheetML); the newer validation and formatting rules kept in extLst are in Microsoft's [MS-XLSX].

Questions

Sources: the Microsoft pages linked on this page were checked on 19 October 2026.