# Micrsoft Excel hiding columns/rows, easy question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micrsoft-excel-hiding-columns-rows-easy-question/208279>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 19, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micrsoft-excel-hiding-columns-rows-easy-question/208279 "2003-10-19T00:47:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hauss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5fc32e/32.png) [@hauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hauss)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micrsoft-excel-hiding-columns-rows-easy-question/208279/1 "2003-10-19T00:47:11Z")

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I know that you can do this from the menu or ctrl+9 and so on, but I seem to remember in a class that we were able to have little plus and minus symbols appear on a sidebar near the beginning of the range and all you had to do was click on them to show or hide the range. It was really convenient and really visually unconfusing. IIRC, it was a combo of two or three keys that enacted this feature.

I have Office 2000, not entirely sure what we were using in class, that may be the problem.

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micrsoft-excel-hiding-columns-rows-easy-question/208279/2 "2003-10-19T01:00:57Z")

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I believe you’re thinking of “outlining” data in Excel, which produces those little “+” and “-” signs that you can click on to hide or unhide rows. Go into Excel Help, click on the “Index” tab, and enter “outline,” and it’ll tell you more than you ever wanted to know about it!