How to Hide and Unhide Columns in Excel? (3 Easy Steps)
(Note: This guide on how to hide and unhide columns in Excel is suitable for all Excel versions including Office 365)
Excel comes with a whole package of features that helps us maintain and keep track of large sets of data. We have been covering these in our blogs.
In this guide, let us see one such important feature: How to hide and unhide columns in Excel?
But before we begin, let us understand why there is a need to hide or unhide columns in the first place. Hiding columns in Excel helps you organize your data better and makes it easier to understand for everyone. It does this by temporarily allowing you to hide certain columns, which you may consider irrelevant at present.
Now you may ask: Isn’t it better to delete them once and for all?
Yes, but in certain cases, you may need them later. Hence, it is advisable to hide them temporarily rather than delete them altogether. Let us quickly jump into the guide and learn how to do this the easy way.
You’ll learn:
- How to Hide Columns in Excel?
- How to Unhide Columns in Excel?
- How to Unhide All Hidden Columns in Excel?
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How to Hide Columns in Excel?
Hiding columns in Excel is pretty straightforward. Just follow these steps:
- Open the Excel spreadsheet.
- Click on the Column name you want to hide. This will select the entire column.
- Let us say, you want to hide column ‘D’. Then, click on the letter ‘D’ in the columns section.
Pro Tip: If you want to select two or more columns at the same time, just keep clicking on the columns you want to hide while pressing the Ctrl key.
- Now that you have the relevant columns selected, all you have to do is just hide them. To do this, right-click inside any one of the selected columns and choose the ‘Hide’ option from the context menu.
That’s all. You have successfully hidden the selected columns. These hidden columns will be marked by a thicker green line in the spreadsheet.
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How to Unhide Columns in Excel?
Unhiding specific columns is also simple, provided you already know where these hidden columns lie.
First, let us see how to unhide a hidden column whose location we already know.
- Select the columns which engulf the hidden column by holding down the Shift key.
Let us say you want to unhide column ‘D’. Then you need to select both the columns ‘C’ and ‘A’ on both sides.
- Right-click on either selected column and choose ‘Unhide’ from the context menu.
- Alternatively, you can double click on or drag the hidden column marker to unhide it quickly.
How to Unhide All Hidden Columns in Excel?
Practically, it is impossible to keep track of all the hidden columns’ locations and unhide them one by one.
That’s why we need a one-stop solution to unhide all the hidden columns at the press of a button. Thankfully, Excel already has this feature labeled as the ‘Unhide Columns’ feature.
Follow these steps to use it:
- In the Home tab of the Excel ribbon menu, locate and click on the Format drop-down menu.
- In the drop-down list, click on the Hide & Unhide option in the Visibility section.
- This will once again open another list. Here, click on the Unhide Columns option.
This will unhide all the hidden columns in one go. This is a really helpful feature, especially if you have multiple hidden columns dispersed over a large spreadsheet. Alternatively, you can use the Ctrl+Shift+) shortcut.
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FAQs
How to hide columns or rows in Excel using keyboard shortcuts?
To hide columns or rows in Excel using a keyboard shortcut, just select the relevant rows or columns and press the Ctrl+9 key combination. This will hide all selected columns and rows in one go. Note: The number ‘9’ from the numerical keypad may not work in some systems. Hence, it is advisable to use the normal number ‘9’ key.
How to hide all columns to the right of the last column in Excel?
In some cases, you may want to hide all empty columns on the right side of an Excel worksheet.
To do this, select the last column you want to use and press Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow key combination, immediately followed by Ctrl+0. This will hide all unnecessary columns to the right of the main worksheet.
Let’s Wrap Up
In this short guide, we saw how to hide and unhide columns in Excel using traditional methods and shortcuts. The hide feature in Excel is one of the most rarely known but useful features out there. Using it wisely can save you and your teammates from a lot of confusion surrounding your worksheets. If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments.
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Simon Sez IT has been teaching Excel for over ten years. For a low, monthly fee you can get access to 130+ IT training courses. Click here for advanced Excel courses with in-depth training modules.
Simon Calder
Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA. He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!
