# Need help with MS Excel **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 5, 2007, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574 "2007-07-05T07:52:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/1 "2007-07-05T07:52:37Z")
Hi all. Hopefully someone can help me with this problem that came up at work, when I recieved this Excel sheet via e-mail. Its a list with about 400 rows by the look of it, but the maker of the sheet has somehow hidden most of the rows, so that I’m missing rows 5-164, 166-253, etc, leaving me with only 15 visible rows. So how do I chose to display the hidden rows? I’ve tried selecting the entire sheet, and do format/row/unhide, but that did nothing. Any ideas? Thanks! (of course the guy who made the sheet is now on vacation, so I can’t ask him either) :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/2 "2007-07-05T08:06:01Z")
Select everything, then Format, Row, Autofit. ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/3 "2007-07-05T08:17:22Z")
Nope, that didn’t work. Nor does format/row/height. Any more ideas? 😕🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/4 "2007-07-05T09:03:01Z")
[QUOTE=Etumretniw] Nope, that didn’t work. Nor does format/row/height. Any more ideas? 😕🙂 [/QUOTE] Well, you could e-mail attach it to the address in my profile so I could experiment. I suggest you blank all names and zero all numbers or something. ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/5 "2007-07-05T09:19:26Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] Well, you could e-mail attach it to the address in my profile so I could experiment. I suggest you blank all names and zero all numbers or something. [/QUOTE] Thanks a bunch, but considering I will not be sure I have really erased everything before i send it to you, I don’t think I can do that. The information is a bit sensitive, you see (not that I think you are untrustworthy, but you know how it is with computer security 😉 ). ---
**Author:** ![Harmonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/6 "2007-07-05T09:31:57Z")
perhaps he protected the sheet. Try going to tools then protection, protect sheet. See if anything is protected. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/7 "2007-07-05T09:34:37Z")
You can highlight the entire sheet and then past special as values into another sheet. This works even if the sheet has protection turned on. ---
**Author:** ![shootermcqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@shootermcqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shootermcqueen)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/8 "2007-07-05T10:08:06Z")
has the sheet been filtered? This will be under data tab on top menu… Not sure how to tell you to turn off though… ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/9 "2007-07-05T10:09:32Z")
Cells | Format | Hide & Unhide | Unhide Rows? Or am I missing something obvious? ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/10 "2007-07-05T10:17:55Z")
The OP already tried that. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/11 "2007-07-05T10:20:26Z")
That would be that obvious thing I was missing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/12 "2007-07-05T10:24:52Z")
It could be that there’s an active filter, with “Unique records only” enabled. On My version (2007) you get to that via Sort & Filter/Advanced… in the Data tab. ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/13 "2007-07-05T11:54:38Z")
The filter thing solved it. I just klicked autofilter on data/filter menu to turn it off. Thanks a lot for the help people! 🙂🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-ms-excel/410574/14 "2007-07-05T17:06:06Z")
[QUOTE=Etumretniw] The filter thing solved it. I just klicked autofilter on data/filter menu to turn it off. Thanks a lot for the help people! 🙂🙂 [/QUOTE] So, if you want to keep the filters but see everything, look for the filter arrow that is turned blue. Click on it and choose “all” and everything should show, assuming that is the only filter applied (blue).