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Strategy: Another method for hiding data to simplify a worksheet is to physically hide a row or column.
1) In the spreadsheet below, you might want to hide column C. To do this, select a cell in column C. From the menu, select Format – Column – Hide, as shown in Fig. 1227.
Column C will be hidden from the user. As shown in Fig. 1228, it is interesting to note that the cell pointer has disappeared. This is because the active cell is still in C5.
2) Simply hit the Left or Right Arrow key to move to a visible column to get the cell pointer back.
3) To unhide column C, click on the “B” heading and drag to the right to select the entire range of B:D. From the menu, select Format – Column – Unhide, as shown in Fig. 1229.
What happens if you need to unhide column A? You can’t really select something to the left of A to use the above trick, so follow these steps:
1) Click on the column letter B.
2) As shown in Fig. 1230, drag up and to the left so that the mouse is above row 1. The difference is subtle but you have now selected columns B and A. Use Format – Column – Unhide.
Summary: To hide data in a worksheet without deleting it, select the column to hide and use Format – Column – Hide. To unhide the column select and highlight the entire columns on either side of it and use Format – Column – Unhide.
Commands Discussed: Format – Column – Hide; Format – Column – Unhide
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