Excel Tutorials
Insert, resize, hide and manage the rows and columns that hold your data. This lesson uses the Event Planner workbook from Excel Foundations, free to download below.
Follow along in the same file used in the video. No email required.
Rows run horizontally and are numbered down the left side, columns run vertically and are labeled with letters across the top. Together they form the grid every cell in Excel lives inside, and managing them (inserting, deleting, resizing, hiding) is one of the most common things you'll do in any spreadsheet.
Small adjustments like widening a column or hiding one you don't need right now make a sheet much easier to read, without changing any of the underlying data.
Step-by-step, matching the video above.
Click the row number or column letter itself to select the whole row or column at once.
Right-click a row number or column letter and choose Insert. The new row appears above your selection, the new column appears to the left.
Right-click a row number or column letter and choose Delete. Unlike pressing Delete on your keyboard, this removes the row or column entirely rather than just clearing its contents.
Drag the line between two column letters, or double-click that line to auto-fit the width to your longest entry.
Select several row numbers or column letters together, then drag any one of the boundaries. Every selected row or column resizes together.
Click the small triangle in the top-left corner (or press Ctrl+A) to select the whole sheet, then double-click any column boundary. Every column resizes to fit its own content in one move.
Different from hiding, grouping lets anyone expand a section back open with one click, which makes it a better fit for a shared workbook.
Click and drag across the row numbers or column letters you want to collapse together.
On the Data tab, click Group in the Outline section. A small bracket with a minus sign appears in the margin.
The grouped rows or columns tuck away, leaving just the bracket and a plus sign to expand them again whenever needed.
Pressing Delete on your keyboard only clears the contents, it doesn't remove the row itself. Right-click and choose Delete to actually remove it and shift everything up.
A hidden column can throw off totals or make data look missing. Select the columns on either side and choose Unhide if numbers don't add up.
Hidden rows are easy for a collaborator to miss entirely. If several people use the sheet, Group is usually the better choice, since the collapse/expand bracket is obvious to anyone looking at it.
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Right-click the row number where you want the new row to appear and choose Insert. The new row appears above your selection.
Right-click the row number and choose Delete, rather than pressing the Delete key, which only clears contents and leaves the row in place.
Double-click the boundary line between that column's letter and the next one, and Excel auto-fits the width to your longest entry.
Select the rows or columns on either side of the hidden one, right-click, and choose Unhide.
Hiding tucks a row completely out of sight until someone manually unhides it. Grouping adds a visible collapse/expand bracket, so anyone can reopen the section with one click.
Select the entire sheet (Ctrl+A or the small triangle in the top-left corner), then double-click any column boundary to auto-fit every column at the same time.
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