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Hiding data in Excel simply involves obscuring data from view. You can still apply basic Excel functions to it without any issues. Additionally, concealing data in Excel is convenient, easily activated, and compatible with basic Excel formulas and functions, making it a useful Excel tip you should know.
In this article, Mytour will guide you through 3 methods to conceal data in Excel. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and depending on your specific circumstances, you can apply them accordingly. Furthermore, data concealment in Excel can be applied to various Excel versions, including Excel 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, and the latest Excel 2016.
Guide to Hide Data in Excel
1. Hiding data in Excel using Format cells
Format cells is a tool that allows you to set display parameters and attributes of rows, and it also has a hiding feature, which is hiding data in Excel.
Let's say we have a spreadsheet like the one below, and now Mytour wants to hide the price column. Let's see how we use Format cells to hide data in Excel!
Step 1: Hiding data in Excel with Format cells is very simple, you just need to select the column you want to hide, then right-click and choose Format Cells.
Step 2: In Format cells, under the Number category, scroll down and select Custom, then add 3 semicolons - ;;; to the type section and press OK.
Step 3: After that, return to your spreadsheet and you will see that the price column is completely hidden, while the total column is not affected, and the data continues to be calculated.
Only when we click on it does the price appear, this is how to hide data in Excel using Format cells.
2. Hiding data in Excel using color
Step 1: This is an incredibly simple tool that helps you hide data in Excel. To do this, simply click on the Home tab where you'll find the font color option.
Step 2: Then, you just need to change the font color to white to match the background color.
Step 3: After that, you'll see the result as shown below. However, with this method, the data is easily visible when the object is selected, and this is just a temporary way to hide data in Excel.
3. Hiding data in Excel using the traditional method
This is the most commonly used way to hide data in Excel, the downside of this method is that others can know which column is hidden and which is not.
Step 1: The process is very simple when you just need to right-click on any column and select Hide to conceal it.
And immediately you see column C between two columns completely disappears.
Step 2: To display them again, click on columns B and D then select Unhide and you're done.
Here are ways to hide data in Excel, currently these methods can be performed on Excel 2016, 2013, 2010, or 2007 versions perfectly with the same operations.
These are just some of the many tips you can apply to your Excel files. Additionally, if you're interested, you can explore how to sort data in Excel, one of the essential skills to learn early for your exercises. For more details on sorting data in Excel, check it out here.
