How to Hide and Unhide a Workbook in Excel

Hide a Workbook (Excel File)

Right now, I have four workbooks open in my Excel, and I want to hide two workbooks out of these four. You can use the following steps to do it.

1. First, you need to go to the workbook that you want to hide.
2. After that, go to the View tab.
3. In the View tab, you have the “Window” group, where you have the Hide button.
4. In the end, click the Hide button to hide the workbook that is active now.

And the moment you click the “Hide” button, it seems like the file is closed, but it’s only hidden now.

The Hide button hides the window of the workbook, not the file itself. The workbook stays open in the background, so any formulas in other workbooks that refer to it keep working. Sheets that were already hidden inside the workbook stay hidden when you unhide it later.

Unhide a Workbook (Excel File)

And once you have a workbook hidden, you can unhide it using the Unhide button just below the Hide button.

1. First, go to the View Tab.
2. After that, in the Window group, there’s a button called “Unhide” (this button becomes active only when you have one or more workbooks hidden).
3. Now, click the Unhide button to open the dialog box to unhide the workbook.
4. In the end, from the dialog box, select the workbook that you want to unhide and click OK.

Keyboard Shortcuts to Hide and Unhide a Workbook

You can also use the keyboard shortcuts to hide and unhide a workbook:

• Alt ⇢ W ⇢ H: To hide the active workbook.
• Alt ⇢ W ⇢ U: To open the Unhide dialog box and unhide a workbook from there.

These are ribbon key tips, so you press the keys one after another, not together.

Hide and Unhide a Workbook on a Mac

In Excel for Mac, the Hide and Unhide options are in the Window menu, in the menu bar above the ribbon.

1. First of all, go to the workbook that you want to hide.
2. After that, click the Window menu in the menu bar and click Hide.
3. To get it back, go to Window > Unhide, select the workbook and click OK.

Hide and Unhide a Workbook Using VBA

If you hide and unhide the same workbook often, you can do it with a macro. A workbook is hidden by setting the Visible property of its window to False, and it comes back when you set it to True.

The first macro below hides the active workbook, and the second one unhides a workbook by its name. Change “Sales.xlsx” to the name of your file (with its extension), and make sure that workbook is open.

Sub HideWorkbook()
    ' Hide the window of the active workbook
    ActiveWindow.Visible = False
End Sub

Sub UnhideWorkbook()
    ' Show the window of an open workbook by its name
    Workbooks("Sales.xlsx").Windows(1).Visible = True
End Sub

Put this code in a standard module (in the VBA editor, Insert > Module). Your Personal Macro Workbook is a good place for it, as its macros are available in every workbook you open.

What Happens When You Close Excel with a Hidden Workbook

When you exit Excel, it asks if you want to save changes to the hidden workbook, even if you haven’t changed any data. Excel treats hiding the window as a change.

• Yes: Excel saves the workbook as it is now, so it opens hidden the next time you open it.
• No: the workbook keeps the state it had when you last saved it.

So, if you open a file and see a blank Excel window with no grid, go to View > Unhide. The file was most likely saved while it was hidden.

Why the Unhide Button Is Greyed Out

If the Unhide button is greyed out, no open workbook has a hidden window. The Unhide dialog box lists only workbooks that are open right now. A hidden workbook that you have closed doesn’t show up there; open it first (File > Open), and then unhide it.

You may also see PERSONAL.XLSB in the Unhide list. That’s your Personal Macro Workbook, which Excel creates when you record a macro to it and keeps hidden on purpose. Leave it hidden; if you unhide it by mistake, hide it again with View > Hide.

One more thing: hiding a workbook isn’t a security option. Anyone who opens the file can unhide it in two clicks. If you want to stop people from seeing or changing data, use a password to open the file instead.

Frequently Asked Questions