How to Hide and Unhide Rows in Microsoft Excel

When working with massive, complex spreadsheets, your screen can quickly become overwhelmed with data. You might have rows containing intermediary calculations, old historical data, or sensitive information that you do not want to delete, but also do not need to look at right now.

Instead of deleting this data, Microsoft Excel allows you to temporarily hide rows. Hidden rows remain fully functional—formulas referencing them will still calculate correctly—but they simply vanish from your screen and will not appear if you print the document.

In this guide, you will learn how to quickly hide and restore rows in Excel.

How to Hide a Row

1. Open your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
2. Look at the far left edge of your screen where the row numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) are displayed. This is the row header.
3. Click on the number of the row you want to hide. The entire row will highlight. (If you want to hide multiple consecutive rows, click and drag your mouse across several numbers).
4. Right-click directly on the highlighted row number(s).
5. In the context menu that appears, click on Hide.

The row will immediately disappear. You will notice a gap in the numbering sequence on the left side (for example, it will skip from row 4 directly to row 6), indicating that row 5 is hidden.

How to Unhide a Row

When you need to view or edit the hidden data again, restoring the row is just as easy.

1. Look at the row numbers on the left side of the screen and find the gap where the hidden row exists (e.g., between rows 4 and 6).
2. Click on the number above the hidden row (row 4) and drag your mouse down to highlight the number below the hidden row (row 6). Both visible rows must be selected.
3. Right-click anywhere on those highlighted numbers.
4. From the context menu, click Unhide.

The missing row will instantly reappear on your screen.

How to Unhide All Rows at Once

If you have hidden dozens of rows scattered throughout a massive document, finding them individually is tedious. You can restore everything at once.

1. Click the small triangle icon in the very top-left corner of the spreadsheet (where the row numbers and column letters meet). This action selects the entire worksheet.
2. Right-click on any row number on the left side of the screen.
3. Click Unhide. Every hidden row in the entire sheet will instantly reappear.