How to Add, Remove, and Hide Rows or Columns in Excel

How to Hide Rows or Columns in Excel

There are several ways you can use to hide rows or columns in Excel. Here are some of them:

1] Using the Format Menu

This method is the most common and easy way to hide rows or columns in Excel. Here are the steps:

1. Select any cell in the row or column you want to hide. For example, if you want to hide row 5, select any cell in row 5. If you want to hide column C, select any cell in column C.
2. Click the “Home” tab on the “Ribbon”, just like the previous method.
3. Click the “Format” button in the “Cells” group. This will open a drop-down menu with several options.
4. Hover over the “Hide & Unhide” option. This will open a sub-menu with two options.
5. Select the “Hide Rows” option to hide the selected rows, or the “Hide Column” option to hide the selected columns. It will hide the rows or columns according to the cell position you selected earlier.
6. Repeat these steps to hide more than one row or column.

2] Using Right Click

This method is an alternative way that is also quite easy to hide rows or columns in Excel. Here are the steps:

1. Select any cell in the row or column you want to hide, just like the previous way.
2. Right-click on the selected cell. This will open a context menu with several options.
3. Select the “Hide” option. It will hide the rows or columns according to the cell position you selected earlier.
4. Repeat these steps to hide more than one row or column.

3] Using Width or Height Adjustments

This method is the most manual and flexible way to hide rows or columns in Excel because you can specify the width or height of the rows or columns you want to hide exactly. Here are the steps:

1. Select any cell in the row or column you want to hide, just like the previous way.
2. Hover over the border between two-row numbers or two-letter columns above the selected cell. For example, if you want to hide row 5, hover over the border between numbers 4 and 5 over any cell in row 5. If you want to hide column C, hover over the border between letters B and C above any cell in column C.
3. The cursor will change to the shape of two arrows opposite each other. This indicates that you can adjust the width or height of rows or columns by dragging the cursor.
4. Drag the cursor towards the left or up until the width or height of the row or column becomes zero. It will hide the rows or columns according to the cell position you selected earlier.
5. Repeat these steps to hide more than one row or column.

How to Show Hidden Rows or Columns in Excel

If you want to reshow rows or columns that you have hidden before, you can use the following ways:

1] Using the Format Menu

This method is the most common and easy way to show hidden rows or columns in Excel. Here are the steps:

1. Select any cell in the row or column adjacent to the hidden row or column. For example, if you want to show hidden row 5 again, select any cell in row 4 or 6. If you want to show hidden column C again, select any cell in column B or D.
2. Click the “Home” tab on the “Ribbon”, just like the previous method.
3. Click the “Format” button in the “Cells” group, just like the previous way.
4. Hover over the “Hide & Unhide” option, just like the previous method.
5. Select the “Unhide Rows” option to show hidden rows again, or the “Unhide Column” option to show hidden columns again. It will display the rows or columns again according to the cell position you selected earlier.
6. Repeat these steps to redisplay more than one row or column.