column limitation

[mbnspect]

I am working on an excel spread sheet. I only need to have 9 columns for
what I want to do. The columns are from A to J. Is there a way of deleting
the rest of the columns or making them inactive. This makes it easier
especially when blocking a row. It would not be row of 702 columns but only
of 9 columns?

 

[art]

You can't delete them but you can lock them, by selecting the whole sheet,
then go to protect sheet, and make sure to uncheck the box with select locked
cells, and press OK.

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

You could hide those columns. Select columns H through IV (you can do this
quickly by entering H:IV in the Name Box, the one to the left of the Formula
Bar) and then right-click the selected cells and click Hide on the popup
menu that appears.

Rick

 

[Gord Dibben]

A to J is 10 columns but who's counting<g>

Select columns A:J and Format>Cells>Protection. Uncheck "locked".

Lock the columns right of Column J and hide them.

Protect the worksheet.

BTW..........Where do you get the number 702 from?

Excel 2007 has 16,384 columns.

Earlier versions have 256 or less depending on how early you go.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Gord Dibben]

Only problem with this Rick is that if OP selects a row header and Copies that
row, even the hidden columns are included in the selection.

Although this can be overcome by first selecting the row and F5>Special>Visible
Cells>OK.

Then do the copy and paste.


Gord

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

True, and I probably should include that warning when posting this
suggestion in the future; however, I would note that the OP indicated
nothing would be placed in the columns to be hidden, so the only place this
warning would apply is if the copied row were to be copied to a different
worksheet which might have data in those same columns that were hidden in
the source worksheet.

Rick