Unhide specific columns on a sheet

Ide AirTrunk

This + Grouping Columns is fundamental for the larger sheets, particularly those in finance / budgets which have commonalities across sections and also a lot of helper columns which typically are hidden!

Henry Park

I have grids with hundreds of columns with various helper columns hidden. Sometimes I need to look up the name of the column or unhide for error checking. Unhiding all is the only option if I don't know where the column was hidden. A solution could be to create a button that opens a dialog box of all columns names that is searchable and has a checkbox "hidden". This way we can simply search for the column name, if it's hidden, and where it's hidden (column position). Maybe you can rearrange columns in this box too.

jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp

I manage columns using an API tool (*) when working on large-scale developments. However, when I need to check hidden columns quickly, I use the following method:

Edit Row Menu

For example, the image below is the WBS template sheet, in which I hide columns to see necessary information in the Gannt view.

Click on "Edit" from the row menu. The menu displays all columns, including hidden ones. Click on "fx" to view the column formulas.

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=a4db5dab417b4dedbaaa5527384bb825

Send Update Request Row Menu
From the row menu, click on "Send Update Request." By default, when you click "Include," only the visible columns are checked. The checked columns make it easy to see which columns are hidden and which are visible.

I hope this helps!

(*)

API Tool Image

Adrian Mandile CHESS

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/421083#Comment_421083

One way that I work-around knowing which columns should be hidden, is to use Conditional Formatting – reserving the seldom used very pale purple background and automatic or dark grey font, so that when I have to re-select the columns it is more apparent.

Darren Mullen

@jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp That's a cool trick I wasn't aware of. We've also just released a solution for this through my partnership with SSFeatures:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/462274#Comment_462274

moniquecpl

@jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp - Thank you for sharing this workaround!

Josh W

I have been asking for a popup window interface to manage columns for a long time now; a tabular view where you can sort by sheet order, sort alphabetically, change column names, set the formatting, hide & unhide, change column order etc.
For small sheets it's no big deal, but when you have 350 columns and can't remember the exact names of every column it would have saved me Hours and Hours of hunting !!

sandra.love

This is DESPERATELY needed!!

harocha

100% Agree with the community members replies. Definitely, I'll follow the suggestions from Mike Jungers ; Michael TCS; and Josh W along with great comments from the participants. Thank you, gracias, obrigado, grazie…

SSFeatures

Hey everyone, based on the feedback from this thread and other similar threads, I added these features with SSFeatures so that you can hide and unhide specific columns easier.

• Click the checkboxes to hide and unhide specific columns.
• Click the arrow icons to jump to that column in your sheet.

• The filters at the top let you quickly find the column that you're looking for.
• The "Save/Load/Delete" buttons at the bottom let you save your column settings, so that you can load them again in the future.

If you have any other ideas, I would love to hear them. I'm constantly improving SSFeatures to make it as useful as possible.

Thanks!