what are the 1-8 grey columns left of the spreadsheet?

[Guest]

I have 8 colums , 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 to the left of the spreadsheet. Greyed out
and undeletable. WHat are they and how do I use them, delete them please?

 

[Guest]

I think you're refering to Excel Outlining.

Are there buttons in the gray area that contain a plus sign or a minus sign?
When you click on the plus sign, hidden rows unhide.
Clicking on the minus sign hides grouped rows.

It that is your situation, see "outlining" in Excel Help.

If you want to remove all of the outlining...
From the Excel main menu:
<data><grouping and outlining><clear outline>

Does that help?
***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP

 

[Dave Peterson]

They could be caused by
Data|Group and Outline|Group
or by
Data|Subtotals.

You can remove those symbols by:
tools|Options|View tab|uncheck Outline symbols

Or you may want to remove the grouping/subtotals via the data menu.