Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Displaying a Hidden First Row.

Displaying a Hidden First Row

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 6, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

Excel makes it easy to hide and unhide rows using the menus. What isn't so easy is displaying a hidden row if that row is above the first visible row in the worksheet. For instance, if you hide rows 1 through 5, Excel will dutifully follow out your instructions. If you later want to unhide any of these rows, the solution isn't so obvious.

To unhide the top rows of a worksheet when they are hidden, follow these steps:

  1. Press F5. Excel displays the Go To dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  2. Figure 1. The Go To dialog box.

  3. In the Reference field at the bottom of the dialog box, enter the number of the row range that you want to unhide. For instance, if you want to unhide rows 2 through 3, enter 2:3. Likewise, if you want to unhide row 1, enter 1:1.
  4. Click on OK. The rows you specified are now selected, even though you cannot see it on the screen.
  5. Choose Row from the Format menu, then choose Unhide.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2743) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Displaying a Hidden First Row.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Making Spell Check Ignore Characters

The rules of professional editing often require that editorial changes in a quote be noted with brackets. These brackets, ...

Discover More

Changing Page Orientation

Page orientation controls the way in which information is printed on the page. Here's how you can control the page ...

Discover More

Displaying a Hidden First Column

Hiding columns is easy, even hiding column A. How, then, do you get that left-most column displayed again? Here are a few ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Creating Selections

Want a really easy way to create a selection of a group of cells? Discover how to use the Extend key to make this task ...

Discover More

Automatically Breaking Text

Want to convert the text in a cell so that it wraps after every word? You could edit the cell and press Alt+Enter after ...

Discover More

Counting Words

Do you need to know how many words are in a range of cells? Excel provides no intrinsic way to count the words, but you ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 0 + 7?

2019-04-18 16:46:50

Thomas Papavasileiou

You can also approach the pointer of the mouse in the gray column indicating the row numbers, to the top of the top unhidden row number until it displays a symbol that resembles an equal sign with two arrows, one pointing upwards, starting from the middle of the top horizontal line and the other pointing downwards starting from the middle of the lower horizontal line. When you see that symbol, click and drag downwards, The hidden top row arrears.

An approximate shape of this symbol is as follows

__|__
____
}


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.