Weekly Computer Tip # 232
9 May 2008

temporarily hide data you don't want to see (Excel 2003-2007)

Hope you all had a great Bank Holiday (so that you didn't notice there wasn't a tip last week ;-) But here we are, just in time before you head home to enjoy the sunshine!

If you have a huge worksheet with thousands of rows and columns (after all, Excel 2007 supports over 1 million rows and 16 thousand columns per worksheet, or - to be precise - 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns) you might want to hide rows and columns to change the view or the way you print the worksheet.

Here's how:

1. Select the rows or columns you want to hide.
2. Point to the selected rows or columns, and right-click the mouse button.
3. Click on Hide on the shortcut menu.

When you finish your task, you can unhide the rows and columns to return the worksheet to its original state. Here's how:

1. Select the row above and below the hidden rows, or select the column preceding and following the hidden columns.
2. Point to the selected rows or columns, and right-click the mouse button.
3. Click on Unhide on the shortcut menu.

Alternatively, you can do what Tan Razaq showed me recently and simply click and drag like you would when you adjust the width or the height of your columns or rows. The trick is to click and drag when the mouse pointer turns into a split two-headed arrow, not a solid two-headed arrow, which is used for resizing. (Tan, I cannot get the double-click to work, but I love the clicking and dragging! Thanks for this week's tip inspiration!)

Until next week.

PS I’m committed to sharing the best of what I know with others so please don’t keep me a secret. If you enjoyed today’s tip, please forward it to anyone you feel may benefit. Alternatively, feel free to reprint it (with full copyright and subscription information) in your newsletters and message boards.

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