CP031: Invisibility Tricks – How to make things disappear in Excel?

In the 31st session of Chandoo.org podcast, let’s disappear.

What is in this session?

Spreadsheets are complex things. They have outputs, calculation tabs, inputs, VBA code, from controls, charts, pivot tables and occasional picture of hello kitty. But when it comes to making a workbook production ready, you may want to hide away few things so it looks tidy.

That is our topic for this podcast session.

In this podcast, you will learn

• Quick announcements first anniversary of our podcast etc.
• Hiding cells,
• Hiding rows & columns
• Hiding chart data points
• On/off effect with form controls, conditional formatting
• Hiding sheets
• Making objects, charts, pictures disappear
• Disabling grid-lines
• Turning off formula bar
• Getting rid of headings
• Hiding things in print

Listen to this session

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Links & Resources mentioned in this podcast

Hiding cell content

• How to hide cell contents using custom cell formatting
• Conditional hiding examples
• Introduction to custom cell formatting

Hiding chart data points / series 

• Dynamic chart with multiple series
• Collapse / Expand charts

Hiding objects, shapes & charts

• On/off help using shapes & VBA
• On/off switch using VBA

Hiding things in Print

• An overview of printing in Excel

Transcript of this session:

Download this podcast transcript [PDF]

What is your favorite Excel magic trick?

My favorite tricks are using formulas + form controls to make charts dynamic, using conditional formatting, using VBA to animate stuff.

What about you? What magic you do to impress your boss & colleagues? Please share your tips & ideas in the comments section.

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