Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Hiding and Unhiding Worksheets.

Hiding and Unhiding Worksheets

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 8, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365

There may be times when you want to hide a particular worksheet so that it cannot be easily accessed. This is often done to protect information on a worksheet or keep it from prying eyes. To hide a worksheet, follow these steps:

  1. Select the worksheet you want to hide.
  2. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  3. In the Cells group, click the Format tool. Excel displays a menu.
  4. Choose Hide & Unhide, and then choose Hide Sheet.

The worksheet is immediately hidden. Once hidden, there is no way to tell it is "missing" as there is with hidden rows and columns. If you later want to unhide the worksheet, follow these steps:

  1. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  2. In the Cells group, click the Format tool. Excel displays a menu.
  3. Choose Hide & Unhide, and then choose Unhide Sheet. Excel displays the Unhide dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    4. Figure 1. The Unhide dialog box.

  4. Select the worksheet name you want to unhide.
  5. Click on OK.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6713) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Hiding and Unhiding Worksheets.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Automatic Question Numbering

Want to use Word's numbering capabilities to help you number a series of questions? Here's how to accomplish the task as ...

Discover More

Resetting Menus to Their Default

After a few weeks, months, or years of editing Word's menus, you may forget what the original menus looked like. Don't ...

Discover More

Calculating Elapsed Time with Excluded Periods

When using Excel to calculate elapsed time, there can be all sorts of criteria that affect the formulas you would ...

Discover More

Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2019 For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Alphabetizing Worksheet Tabs

As you get more and more worksheets into a workbook, you'll find yourself moving them around into different sequences. ...

Discover More

Getting the Name of the Worksheet Into a Cell

Excel allows you to change the names assigned to the worksheets in a workbook. If you want to have those names appear in ...

Discover More

Dynamic Worksheet Tab Names

Need a worksheet's name to change based on the contents of a cell? You'll need to rely on a macro to do the changing, but ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 0 + 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.