


As you might know, I don’t recommend hiding columns and rows – it isn’t wrong, but users tend to forget they’ve hidden data and that forgetfulness can cause trouble. However, there’s more to it than first meets the eye. HidingĪuto Outline is simple to implement and easy to turn off if you don’t want to leave the outline in place. To remove the outline, choose Clear Outline from the Ungroup dropdown. Similarly, you can click the 1 and 2 icons to collapse and expand the sheet. To display all the data, click the plus sign. Initially, each bracket displays a minus sign. The change isn’t obvious – look for the brackets above and to the left of the header cells.

In the Outline group, click the Group option’s dropdown.In Excel 2007, there’s an Outline option on the Data ribbon. In Excel 2003, choose Group and Outline from the Data menu and skip to step 4. To illustrate this simple feature, we’ll hide the sales figures in the sheet below, as follows: In a simple sheet, it’s overkill, but if you’re working with lots of data, a quick click is all that stands between you and this simplified view. Auto Outline hides details, showing only the header and summarizing rows or columns. Excel’s Auto Outline quickly hides data details to simplify viewingĮxcel's Auto Outline feature quickly hides detail noise so you can view just a summary of your data.Įxcel offers a simple outlining feature that’s helpful, but often overlooked by users.
