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How to Group and Outline Excel Data

This wikiHow teaches you how to group a section of data in Excel so that you can hide it from the document. This is helpful if you have a large document with lots of data. You can group and outline data in Excel on both Windows and Mac...
Part 1 of 2:

Outlining Automatically

  1. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 1How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 1
    Open your Excel document. Double-click the Excel document to open it.
  2. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 2How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 2
    Click the Data tab. It's in the left side of the green ribbon that's at the top of the Excel window. Doing so will open a toolbar below the ribbon.
  3. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 3How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 3
    Click the bottom of the Group button. You'll find this option on the far-right side of the Data ribbon. A drop-down menu will appear.
  4. Click Auto Outline. It's in the Group drop-down menu.
    1. If you receive a pop-up box that says "Cannot create an outline", your data doesn't have an outline-compatible formula in it. You'll need to manually outline the data.
  5. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 4How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 4
    Minimize your data. Click the [-] button at the top or on the left side of the Excel spreadsheet to hide the grouped data. In most cases, doing this will only display the final line of the data.
  6. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 5How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 5
    Clear your outline if needed. Click Ungroup to the right of the Group option, then click Clear Outline... in the drop-down menu. This will ungroup and unhide any data that was minimized or grouped previously.
Part 2 of 2:

Outlining Manually

  1. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 6How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 6
    Select your data. Click and drag your cursor from the top-left cell of the data you want to group to the bottom-right cell of the data.
  2. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 7How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 7
    Click Data if this tab isn't open. It's in the left side of the green ribbon at the top of Excel.
  3. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 8How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 8
    Click Group. It's on the right side of the Data toolbar.
  4. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 9How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 9
    Click Group…. This option is in the Group drop-down menu.
  5. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 10How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 10
    Select a group option. Click Rows to minimize your data vertically, or click Columns to minimize horizontally.
  6. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 11How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 11
    Click OK. It's at the bottom of the pop-up window.
  7. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 12How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 12
    Minimize your data. Click the [-] button at the top or on the left side of the Excel spreadsheet to hide the grouped data. In most cases, doing this will only display the final line of the data.
  8. How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 13How to Group and Outline Excel Data Picture 13
    Clear your outline if needed. Click Ungroup to the right of the Group option, then click Clear Outline... in the drop-down menu. This will ungroup and unhide any data that was minimized or grouped previously.
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