How to make Excel turn off sounds

by | Feb 4, 2020 | Excel Tips & Tricks

excel turn off sounds

Sound feedback in computer software is intended to increase productivity and warn users when necessary. However, some might find these warnings unnecessary and unhelpful. Excel gives you a "ding" whenever you do something wrong, and inevitably add to your frustration. In this guide, we're going to show you how to make Excel turn off sounds.

First of all, there are mainly two kind of sounds in Excel:

  1. Excel feedback sounds, which are audio cues for completing actions, like pasting a content or auto-fill
  2. Notification sounds for a warning or error message (the more annoying of the two, the "ding" sound)

We will show you how to turn off both sound types. Let's start with the feedback sounds.

How to turn off feedback sounds in Excel

You need to find the Provide feedback with sound checkbox under the Excel Options menu. This check box has been moved to a new place with Excel 2016. Follow one of the paths below based on your Excel version.

Excel 2016, Excel 2019, Excel for Office 365 and later:

  1. In the File menu, click Options
  2. Enable the Ease of Access tab
  3. Remove the check from Provide feedback with sound

How to turn off sounds in Excel - Win 10

Excel 2013, Excel 2010, Excel 2013:

  1. In the File menu, click Options
  2. Enable the Advanced tab
  3. Scroll down to the General section
  4. Remove the check from Provide feedback with sound

Next, let's take a look at warning and error sounds.

How to turn off error sounds

Sound effects for notifications, warnings, or errors are generated by your operating system. As a result, you need to find related options in your system settings.

Please note that your system options may affect other software in your system. When you mute notifications, other Windows applications might be muted as well.

To turn off sounds, you need to go to the corresponding settings. For Windows 10, you have two options:

  • Follow the path Settings > System > Sound > Related settings > Sound control panel or
  • Open the Control Panel and click on Sound

Either of these actions will open the Sound dialog. Continue with enabling the Sounds tab. Here, you will see the list of system events and you can assign them sound files.

  • Click on the event you want to modify
  • Open the dropdown list underneath
  • Select (None) to turn off sounds

How to turn off sounds in Excel - Windows

You may also want to turn off the sounds of the Asterisk and Exclamation events. We highly suggest using the Test button to ensure that you are modifying the correct event.

If you want to turn default settings, use the Sound Scheme dropdown, and select Windows Default item.

You can also save your scheme using the Save As button. Thus, you can switch between default and personalized settings easily when you want to turn off sounds in Excel.