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: Hiding and Unhiding Columns.

Hiding and Unhiding Columns

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 8, 2018)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Excel allows you to easily hide columns in your worksheet. Once a column is hidden, it will not be shown on the display or printed when you print the worksheet. The column is not deleted; its width is simply reduced to 0. To hide a column, follow these steps:

Select any cell in the column (or columns) you want to hide.
Choose the Column option from the Format menu. This displays a submenu.
From the submenu, choose the Hide option.

The columns disappear from the display. Notice, however, that the other columns do not change; they still retain the same column labels. Excel does, however, leave a thick bar in the column header area to indicate where the hidden columns would normally appear.

To later unhide the columns, follow these steps:

Select the columns on either side of those that are hidden.
Choose Column from the Format menu. This displays a submenu.
From the submenu, choose the Unhide option.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2909) 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: Hiding and Unhiding Columns.

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. Learn more about Allen...

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