Hide rows or columns in Excel to make it easier to achieve your data objectives.
Microsoft Excel enables you to hide entire rows or columns of cells, concealing the data they contain without deactivating any functions that involve them. Some people routinely hide portions of their spreadsheets, especially files they share with other people. You can spot a document that contains hidden cells by its discontinuous row or column headings. For example, if you see columns A through J and M through Z, then columns K and L are hidden. You can decide to hide parts of your Excel files for many reasons.
Tidiness
Suppose you create a spreadsheet that tracks contact information for a large group of employees. If you've established separate columns for courtesy titles, first, middle and last names, then used a formula to create full names in another column, you may choose to hide the columns that contain the parts of names and only show the complete calculated results. This can make your spreadsheet easier to read without sacrificing the flexibility of having access to each part of each name.
Relevance
If you've created a large master spreadsheet of information about your company's locations in various states, you may have created columns for a wide range of information types, including contact data, physical as well as mailing addresses, notes about the types of processes each location runs and comments about other aspects of each facility. You may choose to hide the fields that contain your notes while you review information about contacts, and vice versa. Hiding data is a great way to clear away information that isn't relevant at the moment without actually deleting it.
Concealing Intermediate Calculations
You may use more than one column of cells to calculate some of your data transformations, particularly if you're checking out a hypothesis or looking for an answer to a question. It can be convenient to hide intermediate calculations, or intermediate versions of calculations you refine in other columns, so these cells don't distract you while you're working. If you decide you don't actually need some of these data manipulations, you can unhide and delete them.
Printing
When you print a spreadsheet, you may choose to hide information you don't need to include, then make it visible again after your printout is complete. This can help you avoid the need to use larger paper to view sets of aren't next to each other, or simplify making your printout more relevant to an audience that doesn't need to -- or shouldn't -- see certain data. Hiding rows or columns can be a great way to produce a series of printed references to a single data set, each printout presenting different subsets of a large set of information.
Entering Data
You can choose to hide information in some rows or columns to make it easier to enter data in other parts of your file. This facilitates your ability to refer to one cell while typing into another and avoids the need to move data around in your spreadsheet. If you need to pass on a document to an assistant for entry of a new set of monthly information, for example, you may choose to hide the data from other months to minimize distractions and maximize accuracy.
Considerations
It's easy to hide and show large amounts of information in Microsoft Excel. It's also important to remember that just because information is hidden doesn't mean it isn't affected by copy-and-paste operations. Think of hiding cells as a way of shoving clutter in a drawer until you need it -- at which time it's no longer clutter. Of course, just because you hide something doesn't mean it's really invisible. Anyone whose Excel skills are even moderately sophisticated can spot the presence of hidden data and reveal them, even if only out of curiosity.
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