Running Macros on Hidden Worksheets

Macros are often used to process information within a workbook. Your macro can access any cells in the workbook, unless the worksheet containing the cell is hidden. When you hide a worksheet, it is even hidden from normal macro operations.

The upshot of this is that if you want to run a macro and have it access information on a hidden worksheet, you must first "unhide" the worksheet. To do this, you use the following line of code in your macro:

Sheets("My Hidden Sheet").Visible = True

When this line is executed, then the worksheet named My Hidden Sheet will no longer be hidden. It is then easily accessible by regular macro commands. When you are later ready to hide the worksheet again (when you are done processing), use this line of code:

Sheets("My Hidden Sheet").Visible = False

Of course, unhiding and later hiding worksheets can cause a lot of flashing on the screen as Excel tries to update its screen display based on the commands executed in your macro. If you want to avoid this, then use the following line of code at the beginning of your macro:

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

With screen updating turned off in this way, nobody will ever know that you unhid a worksheet and later rehid it.