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.

  5. Select the worksheet name you want to unhide.
  6. 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

Toggling Print Preview

Need to easily switch back and forth between print preview and your document? Here's a quick shortcut key you can use to ...

Discover More

Combining Cell Contents

Excel allows you to easily combine text together. The key is to understand and use the ampersand operator.

Discover More

Getting a List of User Accounts

Part of managing a computer system that is shared by multiple people is to keep track of all the user accounts on that ...

Discover More

Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Retrieving Worksheet Names

Want to grab the names of all the worksheets in a workbook? Here's how you can stuff all those names into the cells of a ...

Discover More

Automatically Renaming Worksheets

Excel allows you to easily add and remove worksheets from a workbook. You may want a way to automatically rename all of ...

Discover More

Moving Worksheet Tabs to a Different Place

Excel displays worksheet tabs at the bottom of the program window. If you want them displayed at a different place, you ...

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.

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 9 + 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.