Unhiding rows in Excel

[kthomas]

I have a spreadsheet I use every day at work. A few weeks ago it started
hiding all the new data entries I made. I never knowingly changed any
properties and am convinced this spreadsheet is now possessed. I can unhide
each row individually but it won't stay unhidden, even if I save the whole
thing under another name. Nor can I unhide them all at once by highlighting
the whole spreadsheet and right clicking on "unhide". I also tried cutting
and pasting into a new spreadsheet. Usually it unhides anything hidden, but
that didn't work either. It's becoming a really serious problem for me at
work and no one knows what to do. Please help!!

 

[Bernie Deitrick]

k,

It sounds like there is event code doing things in the background.

Try setting your macro security level to high, then open the workbook, and
DON'T enable macros. Unhide the rows, and see if the workbook behaves.

If it does behave when macros are disabled, right-click on each sheet tab,
select "View Code" and either comment out or delete any code that appears.
Note that you may lose functionality - you could post the code here to get
help figuring out what it is doing.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP

 

[kthomas]

Bernie,
Thanks for replying! Please forgive my ignorance, but could you tell me how
to set the security level to high? I'm just a beginner! THanks!

 

[Bob Phillips]

If you get warning when you open the workbook, just say No to it, and then
follow Bernie's suggestion. If you don't then make sure security is at
MEDIUM (Tools>Macro>Security...), check Medium on the Security Level tab.
Save and close it, open it again, if you still get no warning, there are no
macros.
--
---
HTH

Bob

(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)

 

[Igneshwara reddy]

Hi Thomas,

It is eary to set Macors level High.

Go to Tools - Options - Security - Macro security and then select High as
required.

 

[kthomas]

Security level is already at "high" and I don't get any warnings when I open
it. I don't know what enabling macros means... is that only if I get a
warning? What next??

 

[Gord Dibben]

If you are set to "High" you will get no warning and macros will be disabled by
Excel.

If set to "medium" you will get a warning and the choice to enable or disable
macros.

If set to "low" there will be no warning and macros will be enabled.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[JLatham]

If your security level is at High (or Very High) then you won't get any
warnings about code being in the workbook, it will simply disable them UNLESS
they happen to be digitally signed by a trusted source. Then they may run
without alerting you.

I'd try this: go back into Macro Security and set the level to MEDIUM.
Close Excel (must be done for Excel to see the new security setting) and
reopen it. Load your workbook and then see if an alert comes up telling you
that the workbook has macros and asking you if it should permit them to run
(Enable) or not (disable). If this warning comes up, choose the [Disabled]
option and see how it behaves.

If it does not come up, most likely you do not have any macro code in the
workbook. Then we have to look elsewhere for the cause. It's pretty tough
to do anything like truly hide an entire row without code. I'm thinking that
conditional formatting could make things almost invisible, so please define
"hidden" - do you mean that you cannot even see the row numbers at the left
at all or that you can see the row numbers, but not the information in them?
Also you say you have to unhide each one individually and cannot select all
rows by clicking on a column letter and using unhide? What about if you
click on on a column letter and then choose [Format] then [Row] then Height
and set the row height to some non-zero value - say about 12 or 13? 12.75 is
default height for rows with 10 point font in them.

 

[kthomas]

I changed the security level to Medium and reopened it. I didn't get any
warnings at all. I unhid a couple of rows and closed it and will see what
happens when I reopen it.
What happens is this: The spreadsheet has several thousand rows of data...
names, dates, etc. Sometimes, when I add a new person, I'll just insert a
row and type in the information where it should go alphabetically, instead of
putting them all at the bottom and resorting by alphabet. The next thing I
know, it's hidden. The numbers on the left would go from 1 to 3 with the
thicker line in between. I can unhide the line and it will come back with
the data I typed, but it won't stay unhidden.
Maybe I have a virus or something. Like I said, I've been using this
spreadsheet for almost 3 years (I created it and never have changed any
properties on it) and this problem only cropped up about a month ago. Any
suggestions?
--
kthomas

If your security level is at High (or Very High) then you won't get any
warnings about code being in the workbook, it will simply disable them UNLESS
they happen to be digitally signed by a trusted source. Then they may run
without alerting you.

I'd try this: go back into Macro Security and set the level to MEDIUM.
Close Excel (must be done for Excel to see the new security setting) and
reopen it. Load your workbook and then see if an alert comes up telling you
that the workbook has macros and asking you if it should permit them to run
(Enable) or not (disable). If this warning comes up, choose the [Disabled]
option and see how it behaves.

If it does not come up, most likely you do not have any macro code in the
workbook. Then we have to look elsewhere for the cause. It's pretty tough
to do anything like truly hide an entire row without code. I'm thinking that
conditional formatting could make things almost invisible, so please define
"hidden" - do you mean that you cannot even see the row numbers at the left
at all or that you can see the row numbers, but not the information in them?
Also you say you have to unhide each one individually and cannot select all
rows by clicking on a column letter and using unhide? What about if you
click on on a column letter and then choose [Format] then [Row] then Height
and set the row height to some non-zero value - say about 12 or 13? 12.75 is
default height for rows with 10 point font in them.

Security level is already at "high" and I don't get any warnings when I open
it. I don't know what enabling macros means... is that only if I get a
warning? What next??

 

[JLatham]

If this is not an overly complex workbook with lots of formulas, linked cells
and such, and is mostly just data, then you might try simply getting
everything unhidden and then copying the data into a new workbook and see if
the new one behaves the same way.

If you want to get a 'second opinion' as to whether the file or your system
may be virus infected, all of the sites listed on this page
http://virusall.com/downscan.shtml are legitimate scan sites - using any or
several of them should be safe for you. Kaspersky Labs even offers a service
to thoroughly scan a single file.

P.S. go ahead and push your security back up to High or Very High again -
although leaving at Medium will at least give you the alert (it's the level I
run at all the time, and just about every workbook I have has code in it -
but keeps me from being unpleasantly surprised by some that people may send
to me from time to time).

 

[kthomas]

Yes, I set the security level to Medium and didn't get any warnings... weird.