Discover the simplest ways to hide columns in Excel and streamline your spreadsheet

When working in Excel, sometimes you will want to hide certain columns or rows to hide unnecessary, non-essential information. So how do people hide multiple rows in Excel? Let’s follow FPT Shop’s article to learn how to hide columns in Excel!

Why hide columns in Excel

In a spreadsheet, there will be a lot of information, so working with it will be confusing. To overcome this situation, people will hide columns in Excel to hide some non-essential information, so as not to distract users. Hiding unnecessary information also helps make the spreadsheet more concise and less cluttered, reducing confusion for users.

Popular ways to hide columns in Excel

Hiding columns in Excel helps you streamline your spreadsheet, making it easier to find the parameters you need. It can also secure important information from being viewed by others. Here are some popular ways to hide columns:

Hide rows and columns in Excel by selected range

To hide columns in Excel using this method, you need to follow 2 simple steps:

• Step 1: Select the column or row you want to hide. Select the Home tab, in the Cells section, then select the down arrow in the Format section.

• Step 2: When the custom table appears, in the Visibility section, select the Hide & Unhide item. Then select Hide Columns to hide columns in Excel and select Hide Rows to hide rows.

In addition, you can go to the Home tab, select the Format section, then select Row Height and enter 0 for Columns Height or Row Height. Regardless of the method used, the selected columns and rows will be hidden from view.

Right-click to hide columns in Excel

In case you want to manually hide columns in Excel by hiding each column, each row, you can use the right-click method. The detailed steps are as follows:

• Step 1: Select the column or row you want to hide.
• Step 2: Right-click on the selected area, the options table will appear. You need to move the mouse down and select Hide. Immediately, the selected area will be hidden.

Hide columns in Excel using Ctrl+9 shortcut

If you don’t want to use the mouse, you can quickly hide columns by pressing the Ctrl+F9 key. This is considered the simplest and easiest way to hide columns in Excel. You just need to select the column, row you want to hide, then press the Ctrl+9 combination, so the selected area will be hidden immediately.

Hide columns in Excel using Go To and Format

In addition to the 3 above-mentioned ways to hide columns in Excel, you can also use the Go To and Format options. This way will prevent others from being able to edit your worksheet. For Go To, you can do as follows:

• Step 1: Go to the sheet you want to hide columns or rows in. Select Home, move the mouse to the top right corner of the toolbar and click the down arrow in the Find & Select section.

• Step 2: Select Go To, after the control panel appears, select the Reference cell, enter any cell in the column you want to hide. Then press OK to proceed to the next step.

• Step 3: Excel will automatically find and move the mouse to the correct cell you entered in the Reference cell. At this point, go to the Home tab on the spreadsheet, find Format and click the down arrow.
• Step 4: Select Hide & Unhide, then continue to select Hide Columns to hide columns in Excel, and Hide Rows to hide rows.

Perform the same with Format, select the column you want to hide on the sheet, select the Home tab, select Format, select Hide & Unhide, then select Hide Columns, Hide Rows, Hide Sheet according to your needs.

How to find hidden columns using worksheet inspection

After hiding columns in Excel, you can hide unnecessary columns and prevent them from being edited. But to display hidden columns, use the worksheet inspection method. With just 3 simple steps, you can find hidden columns:

• Step 1: Go to File, select the Info section, click on the Check for issues feature, then select the Inspect Document item.

• Step 2: Select Yes to save changes to the file and continue.

• Step 3: In the Document Inspector window, check the Hidden Rows and Columns box, then click Inspect to start finding hidden columns and rows in Excel. After you find them, you can apply the above methods to unhide the selected columns.

In addition, you can use Ctrl+A to select all the data in the current sheet. Then right-click and select Unhide to display all the hidden columns in Excel. This method is probably simpler and easier to remember than the worksheet inspection method.

Conclusion

In general, through this article, we have learned how to hide columns in Excel using different methods, as well as how to find hidden columns. Hopefully, the shared information will be useful to you when working with Excel spreadsheets. Mastering the use of Excel will greatly support your learning and future work.