hide rows using + or - buttons

Question

I have seen spreadsheets with an extra column to the left of the row numbers, at the top of the column there are numbered buttons and there can also be + or - buttons which can be used to hide or unhide rows. how is this accomplished?

Answer 1

Ed,

To show this using an example of class lists. Enter data first in sheet.

In A1 have Class 1, then in A2:A5 have Alice, Bob, Cathy, Dean

In A6 have Class 2, then in A7:A12 have Elouise, Frank, Gary, Harry, Isla, Jane

In A13 have Class 3, then in A14:A17 have Konrad, Lem, Marcy, Nina

Next click Data > Group and Outline > Settings, and the Settings dialogue box will appear. Make sure 'Summary rows below detail' is unchecked - in this example the Summary rows (Class 1, Class 2, Class 3) are above the detail (the class member names). Click OK.

Next select cells A2:A5 then click Data > Group and Outline > Group, and the Group dialogue box will appear. Select Rows (if not already selected) then OK. You should then see the start of the outline appearing to the left of the row numbers. Repeat this step for A7:A12 and A14:A17

You should then have boxes with 1 and 2, and 3 - signs next to Class x, and dots next to the names.

If you click on one of the - signs it will change to a + sign, and all the rows with dots belonging to that group will auto-hide. To unhide a group, click the + sign.

To auto-hide all dots in one go, click the box 1.

To auto-unhide all dots in one go, click the box 2.

Hope that example helps.

_____________________

Regards, Tom

Answer 2

edcitizensfirst,

Have a look at this Help page: http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA010024498.aspx?CTT=1

____________________

Regards, Tom

Answer 3

thank you for the timely response. i still have a question, 1) i do not see the1 2 3 or + - symbols on the left side. i did go to options on the tool bar and outline symbols is checked. 2) what i am trying to do is have the ability of hiding or unhiding rows with the plus or minus button, i do not need to group or summarize data, is this what the plus and minus buttons are for?

Thank you, Ed

Answer 4

Hi,

that are subtotals, go to the excel help and look for subtotals it will direct you to different explanations and videos, but basically is for example if you want to subtotals of sales by region you first sort the spreadsheet by region,,then you select the whole range then go to subtotals and tell that for every change in the region column to sum the sales column

Answer 5

There are 2 ways to do this. If you are wanting subtotaled data then

Data | Subtotal...

If you just want to group data then

Data | Group and Outline | Group