The new explorer bar in windows XP explorer window is a good idea. it allows
a list of commonly used functions grouped by type, and hidable under it's
group name. Excel could make use of a feature like this, wherein many
columns or rows could be grouped together as a single group, and with one
click be "hidden", that is the rows or columns after those selected would
collapse to take their place, thus hiding data. I commonly use Excel to do
lengthy data transformations, and often I wish to compare the final results
to the raw data at the top of the spreadsheet. Freeze panes is a good
feature for this, but it only allows two reference views and they are
relatively static. Having a hiding feature would allow groups of data to be
left out, and there could more easily be no bounds as to the format those
could take. In this way something from the beggining, end, and middle of the
worksheet could be compared easily. If the interim data needs to be
referenced, a simple click could allow that data to drop down, as it does in
windows explorer, to reveal the sets of data previously out of reach.

Sounds pretty cool huh? to me this would be a wonderful improvement to the
ways one can manage their speadsheet.

thanks

Jarrett: You may want to investigate DataSubtotals as a way of doing what
you ask. You may need to add a column to use as an identifier for the
grouping of rows, but a small price to pay to be able to 'hide' bulk rows,
and look at only the desired groups. It will give a subtotal at the end of
each group, maybe choose Count if you don't want a sum, etc.

HTH

Bruce


"Jarrett" wrote:

The new explorer bar in windows XP explorer window is a good idea. it allows
a list of commonly used functions grouped by type, and hidable under it's
group name. Excel could make use of a feature like this, wherein many
columns or rows could be grouped together as a single group, and with one
click be "hidden", that is the rows or columns after those selected would
collapse to take their place, thus hiding data. I commonly use Excel to do
lengthy data transformations, and often I wish to compare the final results
to the raw data at the top of the spreadsheet. Freeze panes is a good
feature for this, but it only allows two reference views and they are
relatively static. Having a hiding feature would allow groups of data to be
left out, and there could more easily be no bounds as to the format those
could take. In this way something from the beggining, end, and middle of the
worksheet could be compared easily. If the interim data needs to be
referenced, a simple click could allow that data to drop down, as it does in
windows explorer, to reveal the sets of data previously out of reach.

Sounds pretty cool huh? to me this would be a wonderful improvement to the
ways one can manage their speadsheet.

thanks

Hi Jarrett

Have you ever checked out Group and Outline or Subtotals in Excel?



"Jarrett" wrote in message
...
: The new explorer bar in windows XP explorer window is a good idea. it allows
: a list of commonly used functions grouped by type, and hidable under it's
: group name. Excel could make use of a feature like this, wherein many
: columns or rows could be grouped together as a single group, and with one
: click be "hidden", that is the rows or columns after those selected would
: collapse to take their place, thus hiding data. I commonly use Excel to do
: lengthy data transformations, and often I wish to compare the final results
: to the raw data at the top of the spreadsheet. Freeze panes is a good
: feature for this, but it only allows two reference views and they are
: relatively static. Having a hiding feature would allow groups of data to be
: left out, and there could more easily be no bounds as to the format those
: could take. In this way something from the beggining, end, and middle of the
: worksheet could be compared easily. If the interim data needs to be
: referenced, a simple click could allow that data to drop down, as it does in
: windows explorer, to reveal the sets of data previously out of reach.
:
: Sounds pretty cool huh? to me this would be a wonderful improvement to the
: ways one can manage their speadsheet.
:
: thanks