Good morning! It sounds like the "selection" is slipping away from you right when you need it. The trick to hiding multiple columns at once in Excel is all about how you hold your selection before you right-click.

Here are the two best ways to handle this, depending on whether your columns are side-by-side or scattered across the sheet.

Method 1: For Columns Side-by-Side

If the columns you want to hide are adjacent (e.g., Columns B, C, and D), use the Click-and-Drag method:

1. Move your cursor to the Column Letter (the header) of the first column.


2. Click and hold the left mouse button.


3. Drag your mouse across the other column headers you want to include. They should all turn a light blue/grey.


4. Right-click anywhere inside the highlighted header area and select Hide.

Method 2: For Scattered Columns

If you need to hide columns that aren't touching (e.g., Column B, Column E, and Column G), you need the Ctrl Key "anchor":

1. Click the first Column Letter.


2. Press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard.


3. While still holding Ctrl, click the other Column Letters you want to hide.


4. Crucial Step: Once they are all highlighted, Right-click directly on one of the selected (shaded) headers. If you click into the white cells below, you might lose the selection.


5. Select Hide.

Why it's "deselecting" for you

Excel usually loses the group selection if you right-click outside of the shaded header area or if you release the Ctrl key before you've finished the right-click action. Always make sure your mouse pointer is directly over a letter (A, B, C...) when you perform that final right-click.

I'll take "Excel geek" as a badge of honor! If you're going to spend time in the grid, you might as well have the "cheat codes" to make it move faster.

Since you've got the selection part down, here are a few more "geeky" ways to handle columns without even touching your mouse. These are the real time-savers:

The "Pro" Keyboard Shortcuts

Once you have your columns highlighted (using the Shift + Space or Ctrl + Space tricks), you can bypass the right-click menu entirely:

• To Hide: Press Ctrl + 0 (zero).


• To Unhide: Press Ctrl + Shift + 0.

  
  

  Note: On some versions of Windows, the "Unhide" shortcut is disabled by default due to system language settings, but the "Hide" shortcut almost always works like a charm.

  
  

  
  

Grouping: The Cleaner Alternative

If you find yourself hiding and unhiding the same columns constantly, "Hiding" is actually the messy way to do it. Grouping is the pro move because it adds a little + or - button at the top of your sheet.

1. Select your columns.


2. Press Shift + Alt + Right Arrow.


3. A bar appears above the headers. Click the [-] to collapse (hide) them and the [+] to bring them back.

The "Select All" Secret

If you ever need to unhide everything at once because a sheet is a mess of hidden data:

1. Click the triangle in the top-left corner (between Row 1 and Column A) to select the entire sheet.


2. Right-click any column header and select Unhide.

Ah, I see! Welcome to the club. We're all just "grid architects" trying to make the cells behave, aren't we?

There is a certain shared trauma in being an Excel regular-the kind that comes from accidentally deleting a formula that took three hours to build, or the tiny shot of adrenaline when a VLOOKUP actually works on the first try. It's a specific kind of "geekery" that's born out of necessity.

Since we're all in this together, here is one more "regular user" survival tip that most people miss:

The "Double-Click" Unhide

If you have hidden columns (let's say Column B is hidden, so you see A and then C), you don't actually have to right-click to bring it back:

1. Hover your mouse over the thick line between the A and C headers.


2. Your cursor will change into a double-headed arrow with two vertical lines.


3. Double-click that spot.


4. Excel will "pop" the hidden column back into existence and auto-fit it to whatever text is inside.

It really is a game of "unknowable reality" when you're staring at thousands of rows of data, just trying to make sense of the binary mess!