Hiding and Showing Rows and Columns in Google Sheets

[nerdslife_team]

Google Sheets lets you hide rows and columns temporarily, which is super handy when you want to focus on specific parts of your data without deleting anything. It’s great for cleaning up your view, especially when you’re working with massive spreadsheets.

Hiding a Single Row or Column

If you just want to hide one row or column, here’s how to do it:

1. First, select the row you want to hide by clicking its row number on the left. This will highlight the whole row.
   

2. Then, right-click on the selected row. A menu will pop up, where you’ll choose “Hide row”.
   

   

Now your row is hidden! You’ll see little arrows between the adjacent row numbers, which shows where you’ve hidden something.

To hide a column, the process is exactly the same:

1. Click the letter at the top to highlight the entire column you want to hide.
   

   

2. Right-click on the highlighted column and choose “Hide column” from the menu.
   

   

The column is now hidden, and you’ll see arrows between the column headers.

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Hiding Multiple Rows or Columns

Got a bunch of rows or columns to hide? Here’s how to handle it:

Method 1: Hiding Non-Adjacent Rows or Columns

1. To select non-adjacent rows, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the row numbers of the ones you want to hide. So, if you wanted rows 3, 5, and 6, you’d hold Ctrl and click each of their numbers.
   

   

2. After you’ve selected all the rows you need, right-click on any of them. Choose “Hide rows” from the menu.
   

   

Method 2: Hiding Adjacent Rows or Columns

If your rows are next to each other, there are a couple of easy ways to select them:

1. Click and drag over the row numbers to select a range.

2. Alternatively, click the first row number, hold down the Shift key, then click the last row number in the range. For instance, to select rows 2 through 9, click row 2, hold Shift and then click row 9.
   

   

3. After you’ve selected your rows, just right-click, and select “Hide rows.”
   

   

To hide multiple columns, it’s the same drill. Select them, right-click, and hit “Hide columns”.

Now all your selected columns are hidden.

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Unhiding a Single Row or Column

To bring back a hidden row or column, look for the little arrow indicators. These arrows show that there’s a hidden row or column in that place.

1. Hover your mouse over that arrow. When the arrow bar appears, click on it.
   
   

Your hidden row or column will pop back into view, highlighted to show that it has just been unhidden.

You can use the same process to unhide a single column. Just click the arrow indicator to unhide it.

Unhiding Multiple Rows or Columns

When you’ve got lots of hidden rows or columns, you can unhide them all together.

Method 1: Unhiding Using Range

1. First, select the range of rows or columns that includes the hidden ones. To grab a range of rows, click the row number above your hidden section, hold Shift and click the row number below the hidden section.
   

   

2. Then, right-click anywhere within that range and choose “Unhide rows.”
   

   

Now, all the rows hidden within that range will be visible again!

The process for columns is identical. Select the columns surrounding the hidden section by clicking the column letter before the first hidden column, holding Shift and then clicking on the column letter after the last hidden column.

3. Right-click within the selection and click “Unhide columns”
   
   

All the hidden columns will now be visible.

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