Hidden Columns List

If columns could have a 'Hidden' attribute in their column properties like in Forms, then we could have a 'Hide Columns' option in the right-click column menu, instead of only 'Show All Hidden Column' and then no efficient way of re-hiding them all.

Also, some way to distinguish these 'Hidden' columns when they are made visible, by allowing some form of user-selected (conditional?) formatting within the sheet would also be informative/useful.

I agree with Adrian on this. We need not to show hidden columns in forms.

I also would like to see all of what is being proposed in this idea implemented.

The system allows users to hide columns individually or in blocks - good. Unhiding those columns - bad. There are currently only two alternatives to unhiding columns - unhide all, which is ridiculous overkill that requires users to then unhide all the unwanted columns, or unhiding them one at a time by dragging the vertical column separator. This second option is inefficient in that it's one-at-a-time, and undesirable in that unhiding is a manual drag that does not preserve the previous column width. There should be an option to select a block of columns and unhide all columns in that range at the previously saved column widths.

Like functionality should also exist for hiding rows.

Perhaps not exactly what you are looking for, but a handy trick I recently learned from a colleague relative to your second point; give the columns you want typically hidden a gray (or some other) background color. That way, when you unhide all, it's easy(er) to hide them again without having to (again) think through whether each column should be hidden. This is something I now do on every sheet I create and it is super helpful.

I like the idea of using to indicate automations will populate. Thanks for sharing. What I had been doing similarly was highlighting fields a certain color relative to the group that is expected to populate them. Ie. project team input vs. PM. That said, I like to limit the amount of colors on my sheets...I think it was a Smartsheet webinar that made me aware of how this can result in something I think they called a clown sheet....too many colors, degrading the effectiveness of any of the colors.

To solve the challenge you note, I would try using conditional formatting. First, on the source sheet I'd set the column colors instead of setting it manually to check whether formatting set conditionally carries over to the new sheet. If it does, set new conditional formatting on the destination sheet.

PLEASE! I love this idea. I dislike needing to unhide ALL or guessing which ones to expand and then recalling which ones to then hide again when I am through with a review. Currently my work around is to add the word [hide] to the column name or color it dark gray.