How to Hide Unused Cells in Excel & Google Sheets
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This tutorial demonstrates how to hide cells in Excel and Google Sheets.
Hide Unused Cells – Excel Ribbon
Hide Unused Columns
Excel doesn’t give you the option to hide individual cells, but you can hide unused rows and columns in order to display only the working area. To hide unused columns using the Ribbon, follow these steps:
- First, select the column header in the first empty column and press CTRL + SHIFT + → to select all the columns between the selected one and the last one.
- Then, in the Ribbon, go to Home > Format > Hide & Unhide > Hide Columns.
As a result, all selected columns are hidden.
Hide Unused Rows
To hide all unused rows using the Ribbon, follow these steps:
- Select the row header for the first empty row and then press CTRL + SHIFT + ↓ to select all the rows between the selected one and the last one.
- In the Ribbon go to Home > Format > Hide & Unhide > Hide Rows.
Now, all unused rows are hidden, and only populated cells are shown.
Hide Unused Cells – Context Menu
Hide Unused Columns
Another way to hide unused columns in Excel is by using the context menu.
- Select the column header in the first empty column and press CTRL + SHIFT + → to select all columns between the selected one and the last one.
- Right-click anywhere in the sheet and from the context menu, choose Hide.
All selected columns are hidden after this step.
Hide Unused Rows
To hide all unused rows using the context menu in Excel:
- Select the row header in the first empty row and then press CTRL + SHIFT + ↓ to select all the rows between the selected one and the last one.
- After that step, right-click anywhere in the sheet and from the context menu, choose Hide.
As a result, all unused rows are hidden, and only populated cells are displayed.
Hide Unused Cells in Google Sheets
To hide unused cells in Google Sheets and display only the working area, you also need to hide rows and columns.
Hide Columns
- Select the column header in the first empty column and press CTRL + SHIFT + → to select all the columns between the selected one and the last one.
- After that, right-click anywhere on the selected range and choose Hide columns (here, Hide columns D – Z).
This hides all selected columns.
Hide Rows
- To hide all unused rows in Google Sheets, select the row header in the first empty row and press CTRL + SHIFT + ↓ to select all the rows between the selected one and the last one.
- Then, right-click anywhere on the selected area and from the Menu, choose Hide rows (here, Hide rows 9 – 1000).
As a result, all selected rows are hidden, and only populated cells are shown.
