Everyone working with data in Excel knows the drill: different teams or meetings often need to see different sets of data. But manually hiding and adjusting columns for every meeting can get old—fast. Luckily, Excel’s Custom Views for Data can save you a lot of time and effort by automatically adjusting which parts of the spreadsheet are visible.

In this post, I’ll walk you through how to create Custom Views so you can show exactly what each group needs to see—without constantly editing your sheet. Let’s get started.

Here’s a quick video tutorial to visually guide you through the process:

What Are Custom Views in Excel?

Custom views let you save different ways of viewing your worksheet by hiding and showing specific data. For example, let’s say you need to show only wholesale data in one meeting and only retail data in another. With custom views, you won’t have to keep manually hiding and unhiding columns each time you switch meetings.

It’s essentially a feature for creating multiple “snapshots” of your spreadsheet. This allows you to switch between different layouts in just a few clicks, rather than reformatting your data for every use case.

Setting Up Custom Views in Excel

Here’s a scenario: you have two types of data on your Excel sheet—wholesale data and retail data. You have two different meetings where one group only needs to see wholesale, and the other group only needs to see retail. Using custom views will allow you to toggle between displaying these datasets.

Step 1: Open Your Excel File and Add the “Master” View

We’ll start by adding a custom view that shows all of your data—this will serve as your master view, so you can always return to it.

  1. With all of your data visible, go to the View tab at the top of Excel.
  2. Select Custom Views.
  3. Click Add. For the name, use something like “Master” or even “Myself” if this view is just for you.
  4. Click OK.

Now you have a custom view that includes everything. You can always come back to it whenever you need to see the full data set.

REALATED TOPIC: How to Use Text to Columns in Microsoft Excel

Step 2: Create a Custom View for Meeting 1 (Wholesale Data)

Next, let’s create the view specifically for showing only your wholesale data.

  1. Highlight all of the retail data you don’t want to show in Meeting 1. This includes retail columns and any blank spaces associated with those columns.
  2. Right-click and select Hide. Now, only your wholesale data should be visible.
  3. Go to View > Custom Views and click Add.
  4. Name this view something like “Meeting 1” or “Wholesale.”
  5. Click OK.

Step 3: Set Up a View for Meeting 2 (Retail Data)

Now we’ll create the custom view for your second meeting, where you’ll only need to show the retail data.

  1. Highlight all the wholesale data that you want to hide.
  2. Right-click and select Hide.
  3. Go back to View > Custom Views and click Add.
  4. Label this view “Meeting 2” or “Retail.”
  5. Click OK.

Step 4: Switching Between Views

After setting up these views, switching between them is a breeze. Let’s say you want to prep your data for the first meeting:

  1. Go to View > Custom Views.
  2. Select the view you need (e.g., “Meeting 1”) and click Show.
  3. Excel automatically hides the columns you want hidden.

Once meeting 1 wraps up, you can quickly adjust for the second meeting:

  1. Head over to View > Custom Views.
  2. Select “Meeting 2,” click Show, and your view will switch—hiding the wholesale data and revealing the retail data.
  3. When both meetings are over and you need to see everything again, just select your master view (e.g., “Master”) and show all your data.

RELATED TOPIC: How to Use PowerPoint Slide Master Effectively

Why Custom Views Are Helpful

Custom Views help you work more efficiently and save time, especially if you need to tailor your data display frequently during the day. Instead of hiding and unhiding columns manually, Custom Views give you preset options you can switch between effortlessly.

This feature is extremely useful for:

  • Presentations: Each group only sees data relevant to them.
  • Meetings: Get organized quickly without lengthy prep work.
  • Reports: Easily swap between views to compare datasets without changing the structure of the spreadsheet.

Essentially, custom views let you tailor your Excel data layouts based on what’s important for each audience. It’s a time-saver and eliminates stress during presentations.

Conclusion

Using custom views for data in Excel is one of the most helpful ways to manage multiple displays of your information depending on different needs. Whether you’re in back-to-back meetings requiring different data sets or you just want to keep things organized, custom views streamline the entire process.

Setting it up takes only a few minutes, and once done, you can switch between views with a couple of clicks. The next time you’re working with different datasets in a single sheet, give custom views a try—you’ll thank yourself for the time saved.

Happy Excel-ing!

If you found this post helpful, please do share it or drop a comment below with questions or feedback. And if you’d like to see more tutorials, don’t forget to subscribe to my channel!

Get Started with Microsoft 365

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel for more Microsoft Excel and Microsoft 365 Tutorials.

This page may contain affiliate links. These are tools I personally use and love. I may receive a small commission should you make a purchase using one of these links. This helps keep the tutorials and website posts coming and up to date. Thank you for your support! For more information please see my full disclaimer.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR