In this tutorial, you will learn how to group cells in google sheets.
If you’ve done much work in Google Sheets, you’ll know that sometimes spreadsheets can balloon in size till it’s hard to find the specific data you need. Other times, certain data is only needed rarely but can occasionally be useful to view. Grouping rows and columns is a powerful tool for controlling what data is visible at any given time in a spreadsheet. With groups, you can expand or collapse sections easily to help keep your spreadsheet easy to navigate and understand. Read on to learn more.
Quick Navigation
Adding a Group
Groups can be used to separate many different categories of data. For example, a group might correspond to a date range, project phase, team, etc. Here’s how to create groups:
Step 1
The first thing to be aware of is that adjacent column or row groups will combine into one large group, so you need to separate any adjacent groups with a dividing row or column. For example, if we want to put two adjacent column groups, we need to right click on one of the boundary columns and choose Insert Column to add a divider
Step 2
After adding any necessary dividers, select the columns for the first group, making sure not to include the divider column. Open the View menu, hover over Group and choose Group Columns
Step 3
The column grouping will be indicated above the column headers with a horizontal line and small plus/minus icon at one end
Step 4
Clicking on the plus/minus icon will expand and collapse the group
Step 5
Repeat the above steps as needed for any additional column groups
Step 6
Row groups work much the same, simply add rows as dividers and select the rows instead of columns
Removing a Group
If you ever find you made a group in error or no longer need all or some of the cells to be in that group, here’s how to remove groups:
Step 1
Select the columns you want to ungroup and open the View menu, hover over Group and choose Ungroup Columns
Step 2
If you selected all the columns in a group, the entire group will be removed, however if you selected only some columns in the group, those columns will be ungrouped and the unselected columns will remain grouped. This can mean the group will turn into two separate groups if you selected columns in the middle of the group
Step 3
Ungrouping rows works in much the same way as ungrouping columns
Summary
Example Spreadsheet: Make a copy of the example spreadsheet
In this tutorial, I covered how to group cells in google sheets. Want more? Check out all the Google Sheets Tutorials.