Excel: Unhide Rows or Columns

Mitch Bartlett Comments (8)
Excel Header

If you can’t see certain rows or columns in Microsoft Excel, it may be because they are hidden. Here’s how to unhide rows or columns.

Note: The steps illustrated are from desktop client versions of Microsoft Excel as well as Excel 365. Mobile versions have the same menus, but may require slightly different steps.

  1. Select the columns or rows that are before and after the one you would like to unhide.
    Select Columns
  2. Select the “Home” tab.
  3. In the “Cells” area, select “Format” > “Hide & Unhide” > “Unhide Columns” or “Unhide Rows” as desired.
    Select unhide columns
  4.  The column or row should now be unhidden.
    Hidden columns are displayed

You can also use a shortcut to hide or unhide rows and columns

  • Ctrl + Shift + 0 => to unhide the hidden columns within the selection
  • Ctrl + Shift + 9 => to unhide the hidden rows within the selection
  • Ctrl + 0 => to hide the selected columns
  • Ctrl + 9 => to hide the selected rows

FAQ

Why doesn’t hiding and unhiding work when I use these steps?

You may have to unfreeze the selection first. Click on the View tab, then select on Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes.

Author Mitch Bartlett

Through my career that spans over 20 years I have become an expert in Microsoft Systems Administration, Android, and macOS. I started this site as a technical guide for myself and it has grown into what I hope is a useful knowledgebase for everyone.

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Comments

  3. Agreed with the other posts that my issue was a combination of unhide plus unfreeze panes. With the panes still frozen the rows and colums would not unhide. Seems like MSFT needs to make it easier to prompt users somehow, or have the unhide override the freeze panes issue. It took me quite a while to figure this out and I’ve been using Excel for 10+ years.

  5. Stuart’s tip did not work for me, however, when I selected all rows & columns, clicked on ‘View’ tab, then clicked on Freeze Panes, and had the option to unfreeze. That worked!

  6. Stuart’s tip worked for unhiding rows. I had already tried, unsuccessfully, to unhide the typical way and tips from other posts.

    Thank you Stuart!

  7. Here’s the simple way, using shortcut

    Ctrl + Shift + 0 => to unhide the hidden columns within the selection
    Ctrl + Shift + 9 => to unhide the hidden rows within the selection
    Ctrl + 0 => to hide the selected columns
    Ctrl + 9 => to hide the selected rows

    I’ve tried it and works in excel 2007, 2010 and 2013.

  8. Does not seem to work when columns A to E are hidden and cells F1 to H1 are merged.

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