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Want to quickly hide columns in Excel without deleting them? When you collapse a column in Excel, it is temporarily hidden so you can look at other data more easily. You can close and open columns with just a click. This wikiHow teaches you how to collapse multiple columns in your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet using the “Group” tool.
Steps
Collapsing Columns
-
Open your spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. You can do this on your Mac or PC by double-clicking the file.[1] -
Select the columns you want to collapse. To do this, click the letter above the first column, then drag the mouse to include the second column. Both columns should now be highlighted.[2]- If you don’t want to collapse two entire columns, just select the cells you want to collapse (rather than selecting the column letters).
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Click the Data tab. It’s at the top of Excel. -
Click Group. It’s near the top-right corner of the screen in the “Outline” group.[3] -
Select Columns in the “Group” pop-up and click OK. If you don’t see a “Group” pop-up, just skip to the next step.[4] -
Click - to collapse the columns. It’s on the left side of the gray bar above your spreadsheet. The columns will collapse and “-“ will turn to a “+.” -
Click + to expand the columns. This restores them to their original form.[5]
Expert Q&A
Video
Tips
References
- ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/open-files-from-the-file-menu-97f087d8-3136-4485-8e86-c5b12a8c4176
- ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/select-cell-contents-in-excel-23f64223-2b6b-453a-8688-248355f10fa9
- ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/group-or-ungroup-shapes-pictures-or-other-objects-a7374c35-20fe-4e0a-9637-7de7d844724b
- ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-08ce98c4-0063-4d42-8ac7-8278c49e9aff
- ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-08ce98c4-0063-4d42-8ac7-8278c49e9aff
About This Article
1. Open your spreadsheet.
2. Select the columns.
3. Click the Data tab.
4. Click Group.
5. Select Columns and click OK.
6. Click – to collapse.
7. Click + to uncollapse.
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