In Excel: select the row numbers, right-click and choose Hide; to bring them back, select the rows around the gap (or Ctrl+A for the whole sheet) and choose Unhide, or use Home ▸ Format ▸ Hide & Unhide.
Click a row number and drag (or Ctrl-click) to select the whole rows you want to hide.
Right-click the selection and choose Hide, or use Home ▸ Format ▸ Hide & Unhide ▸ Hide Rows.
To unhide a few, select the rows immediately above and below the gap, right-click and choose Unhide.
To unhide every row at once, press Ctrl+A, then Home ▸ Format ▸ Hide & Unhide ▸ Unhide Rows.
What this does
Hiding a row collapses it out of view without deleting anything — the data, formulas and any totals that reference it all keep working, the row is simply not shown. You select whole rows by their numbers, right-click and pick Hide, and a doubled border marks where rows are missing. Unhiding reverses it: select the rows on either side of the gap and choose Unhide. To reveal every hidden row at once, select the entire sheet with Ctrl+A first. Keep the inputs visible and clearly labelled and the whole thing stays auditable — anyone who opens the file later, including you, can see at a glance exactly what feeds the result and change one assumption without hunting through the formula. The difference between a quick fix and a sheet you can trust is the extra minute you spend validating “unhide all hidden rows in excel”. Start on a copy or a tiny sample, keep the affected rows visible, and compare the result with the tool above before you touch the real workbook. When this is a ribbon command, the selection matters more than the button: confirm the range, apply the command, then spot-check the output before saving. The point is a layout choice that keeps the sheet readable and sortable, but the practical win is that someone else can open the file and understand what happened without asking you.
A worked example
A report has detail in rows 5–8 you want out of the way. Click row header 5, drag to row 8 to select all four, right-click and choose Hide — rows 5 to 8 vanish and the numbering jumps from 4 straight to 9. Later, to bring them all back, press Ctrl+A to select the whole sheet, then Home ▸ Format ▸ Hide & Unhide ▸ Unhide Rows, and rows 5–8 reappear exactly as they were. Hide rows to tuck away detail, helper calculations or seasonal entries without losing them — a cleaner print-out, a tidier review, a report that shows only the summary. Because nothing is deleted, you can unhide and get every row back exactly as it was whenever you need it. If there is any chance you will reuse this, drop it into a small template tab right now: a labelled input area on the left and the formula beside it, checked once against the tool above. Next time the same question comes up, the answer is a single paste away instead of a rebuild from memory.
In Google Sheets
Everything above works in Google Sheets too. Excel and Sheets share the formula syntax used here; only the surrounding menus are arranged differently. That portability is deliberate — learn it once and it follows you between the two tools and across Windows and Mac. Nothing on this page is behind a login: the tool runs entirely in your browser, the formula is shown in full with one-click copy, and the steps work the same on Windows and Mac. That is the whole promise here — the exact answer, a way to prove it on your own numbers, and just enough context to make it stick. Here is the takeaway for “unhide all hidden rows in excel”: copy the answer if you are busy, but if you have a spare few minutes, rebuild the example in Excel yourself with the tool above open beside it. That single pass — type it, run it, watch the result move when you change an input — is what turns a formula you found into a technique you trust. Keep your inputs labelled and referenced, never hard-coded, and the same sheet stays correct and auditable as it grows. Done that way, you will not need to look this up again, and you will be the person others ask.
Common mistakes
- Selecting cells instead of whole row headers, so Hide is greyed out or hides the wrong thing.
- Forgetting hidden rows still count in
SUMand other ranges — hiding does not exclude them from formulas. - Trying to unhide row 1 by selecting around it (there is no row above) — instead select from row 1 down, or use the Name Box and Unhide Rows.
- Confusing hiding with filtering; a filter hides rows by condition and is cleared differently from a manual Hide.
Frequently asked questions
How do I unhide all rows at once?
Select the entire sheet with Ctrl+A (or click the corner box above row 1), then Home ▸ Format ▸ Hide & Unhide ▸ Unhide Rows reveals every hidden row in one step.
Do hidden rows still affect my totals?
Yes — SUM and most functions still include hidden rows. Use SUBTOTAL or AGGREGATE if you need a total that ignores hidden rows.
How do I unhide the very first row?
There is no row above row 1 to select, so type A1 in the Name Box to land there, then Home ▸ Format ▸ Hide & Unhide ▸ Unhide Rows.