Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. 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 Columns.

Hiding and Unhiding Columns

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 2, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021

1

Excel allows you to easily hide columns in your worksheet. Once a column is hidden, it will not be shown on the display or printed when you print the worksheet. The column is not deleted; its width is simply reduced to 0. To hide a column, follow these steps:

  1. Select any cell in the column (or columns) you want to hide.
  2. Make sure the Home tab of the ribbon is displayed.
  3. Click the Format tool in the Cells group. Excel displays a series of options.
  4. Click Hide & Unhide and then click Hide Columns.

You can also hide columns by selecting those you want to hide, right-clicking on the selected columns, and choosing Hide from the resulting Context menu.

The columns disappear from the display. Notice, however, that the other columns do not change; they still retain the same column labels. Excel does, however, leave a thick bar in the column header area to indicate where the hidden columns would normally appear.

To later unhide the columns, follow these steps:

  1. Select the columns on both sides of those that are hidden.
  2. Make sure the Home tab of the ribbon is displayed.
  3. Click the Format tool in the Cells group. Excel displays a series of options.
  4. Click Hide & Unhide and then click Unhide Columns.

You can also unhide columns by selecting the columns on both sides of those you want to unhide, right-clicking on the selected columns, and choosing Unhide from the resulting Context menu.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6864) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Hiding and Unhiding Columns.

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. ...

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What is one more than 4?

2022-07-02 08:39:30

Franklin

I thinknit would be a worthwhile note in the discussion about hiding columns ti mention how gro I ping works and can e used to hide/unhide c I mns.

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