This wikiHow teaches you how to group parts of data in Excel so you can hide them in a document. This method is useful if you have large documents with a lot of data. You can group and summarize data in Excel on both Windows and Mac versions.
Step
Part 1 of 2: Automatically Summarize
Step 1. Open the Excel document
Double-click the Excel document to open it.
Step 2. Click the Data tab
It's to the left of the green ribbon at the top of the Excel window. This will open the toolbar below the ribbon.
Step 3. Click the bottom of the Group button
This button can be found on the right side of the ribbon Data. A drop-down menu will appear.
Step 4. Click Auto Outline
It's in the drop-down menu Group.
If a box appears saying "Cannot create an outline", your data does not contain formulas that can be summarized. You need to summarize the data manually
Step 5. Minimize the data view
Click button [-] at the top or left of the Excel spreadsheet to hide groups of data. In most cases, this step will only display the last row of data.
Step 6. Eliminate summaries if necessary
Click Ungroup to the right of the selection Group, then click Clear Outline… on the drop-down menu. This step removes the grouping of data and returns the previously summarized or grouped data.
Part 2 of 2: Manually Summarizing
Step 1. Select data
Click and drag the cursor from the top left cell of the data you want to group to the bottom right cell.
Step 2. Click Data if this tab is not already open
It's on the left side of the green ribbon at the top of the Excel window.
Step 3. Click Groups
It is located on the right side of the toolbar Data.
Step 4. Click Groups…
This option is in the drop-down menu Group.
Step 5. Select the data group
Click Rows to summarize data vertically or click Columns to summarize data horizontally.
Step 6. Click OK
It's at the bottom of the window that appears.
Step 7. Shrink the data view
Click button [-] at the top or left of the Excel spreadsheet to hide groups of data. In most cases, this step will only display the last row of data.
Step 8. Eliminate summaries if necessary
Click Ungroup to the right of the selection Group, then click Clear Outline… on the drop-down menu. This step removes the data grouping and returns the previously summarized or grouped data.
