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Excel - Hide/Unhide Data in Excel: Quick & Easy Method with Group & Outline Buttons - Episode 799

3,040 views · Published 15 January 2009 · 2:31 · Indexed 28 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial:  Hide/Unhide Data in Excel: Quick & Easy Method with Group & Outline Buttons.

Welcome back to the MrExcel netcast! In today's episode, we have a question from Travis about a cool feature he saw in a spreadsheet he received from someone else. They had a quick way to hide and unhide data using the GROUP AND OUTLINE buttons in the top left corner. Travis wanted to know how to set this up, and I'm here to show you a couple of ways to do it.

The first method is a bit tedious, but it works if your data already has totals. Simply select the detail row, go to DATA, GROUP AND OUTLINE, and choose GROUP. This will manually group the selected rows, and you can use the - and + signs to collapse or expand the group. You can also use the 1 and 2 buttons to switch between multiple groups. However, this can be time-consuming if you have a lot of data to group.

A more efficient way to add group indicators is by using the SUBTOTALS command. If your data doesn't have totals, you can go to DATA, SUBTOTALS, and choose the fields you want to subtotal. This will not only add totals but also automatically create the GROUP AND OUTLINE buttons for you. You can collapse or expand the groups to see just the customer totals, all the totals, or the grand total. This is a great time-saving trick that I highly recommend.

So, whether your data already has totals or not, you now know how to quickly hide and unhide data using the GROUP AND OUTLINE buttons. Thank you, Travis, for the great question. I hope this helps you and others who are looking for a quick way to manage their data. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more helpful tips and tricks. See you next time for another netcast from MrExcel!

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Travis has a spreadsheet where you can quickly hide and unhide detail rows using the tiny "1" and "2" buttons. In Episode 799, I will show how to add these Group and Outline symbols to your worksheet.

Table of Contents:
(00:00) Introduction to the topic of hiding and unhiding data using GROUP AND OUTLINE buttons
(00:18) Question from Travis about how to set up this feature
(00:31) Manual method of grouping data using DATA, GROUP AND OUTLINE
(00:59) Using the subtotal command to quickly add group indicators
(01:56) Benefits of using the subtotal command
(02:09) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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