It’s easy to hide rows and columns in an Excel worksheet, and you or your boss or co-worker might do that when setting up an Excel file.
Occasionally though, you might have trouble unhiding Excel row and columns. There are written steps and a video below, that show how to fix the problem
Hiding Rows and Columns
Usually it’s easy to unhide rows or columns that have been temporarily hidden.
Just select the columns (or rows) on either side of the hidden ones, then right-click, and click Unhide.
Trouble Unhiding
However, if you hide Row 1, or Column A, in an Excel worksheet, you might have trouble unhiding them.
Here are the steps to see the hidden rows or columns again:
- For rows, press on the first visible row button, then drag up, onto the Select All button. The little popup shows the number of rows you’ve selected.
- Then, right-click the first visible row button, and click Unhide.
NOTE: For hidden columns, select the first visible column, and drag to the left.
See the Steps to Unhide Rows
This animated gif shows the steps for selecting the hidden rows, and unhiding them
Another Solution
If that selection trick didn’t work, the rows might be hidden because some of the worksheet has been locked, with the Freeze Panes command.
To see if freezing is the problem of hidden rows or columns, follow these steps:
- Select any cell on the the worksheet
- On the Excel Ribbon, click the View tab
- If there is an Unfreeze Pane command in the drop down list, click that, to unfreeze the locked sections
The “hidden” rows or columns might reappear after that, when you scroll to the top or left of the worksheet.
Video: Trouble Unhiding Excel Rows
This short video shows you a quick way to see those hidden rows and columns again, in your Excel worksheet.
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Trouble Unhiding Excel Row and Columns
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Nice tip Deb, I never knew that. I would have pressed F5 to bring up the Go To dialog and entered A1. Then choose Unhide from the Format menu. Your way is quicker and easier.
Great idea and short cut. I have found this to be the case more than once that someone has hid the column couldn’t figure out what happen to it and added another column reworked all the formulas in the ajointing fields etc. Not knowing that it was still there.
Hi Deb, This is a nice tip. I stopped hiding because I didn’t know how to get it back. Now I know.
Thanks Tim, Fred and Peggy! Glad you like the tip.
Just so your readers are aware… even if you had not posted selection trick in this blog item, they could still quite easily have selected Columns A and B by simply typing A:B in the Name Box (the empty field to the left of the Formual Bar)… that would have selected the hidden Column A along with the visible Column B. Similarly, to select the hidden Row 1 and the visible Row 2, they could just type 1:2 in the Name Box. Then, after doing either of these two steps, they could right click the selection and select the Unhide option.
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Here’s an advice for those who’s having their excel Freezed panes, remember to unfreeze panes before typing A1 in the name box. Good day everyone!
Thanks Jeanette. I was tired doing “UNHIDE DRILL” over and again 🤦🏻♂🤦🏻♂
Now I find that my panes were freezed actually. Thank you again!
Thanks that has always been a pain…i appreciate your explanation being concise.
IT is not work.I do not use hiding row but it is hiding.When I find that customer’name the arrow point to between row number 73 and 75. That’s why I do unhide format I can not do.It is not work. How can I do this error. Please help me.
Best Regards