How to Expand All Grouped Cells in Microsoft Excel?

Learn how to group and expand grouped data in Excel

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How to Expand All Grouped Cells in Microsoft Excel?

Grouping data is an essential feature In Microsoft Excel that makes data management highly efficient and saves a lot of time. It enables a user to perform a number of functions and carry out various types of analysis, which can help them refine their data more. Users are able to tailor data to their specific needs and analyze specific areas of the data set.

Grouping data in an Excel worksheet is just a matter of a few easy steps. It is done by grouping the cells of the respective data that the user wishes to group.

Illustrative Example

The following Excel worksheet example can be used to illustrate the process. Here, to group the data in Columns B, C, and D, we’ve selected the cells accordingly. 

Expand Grouped Cells in Excel

1. On the top menu toolbar, select the “Data” tab and click on “Group.” It will group your data according to your selection.

 

Group Cells

 

2. After performing the previous step, a new pop-up window will appear. It gives the user the option to group either the cluster of cells of the respective rows together or the respective columns. Select the appropriate option according to your data requirements.

Group by Columns

3. Collapsing grouped data: Once the data is grouped with respect to its rows or columns, a plus sign and a minus sign will appear on a toolbar above the columns. They will run the functions of “expanding” and “collapsing” grouped cells. For the purpose of “collapsing,” or hiding the grouped data, click on the minus sign above the toolbar as illustrated below.

Collapsing Grouped Data

 

4. On clicking the minus sign, the output would be:

Output

The process is also sometimes referred to as “hiding” the data. The function is very helpful in managing data of a similar field containing information from multiple sources. It makes managing and analyzing data a very efficient and time-saving process.

Expanding Grouped Cells

Now, when the user wishes to expand all the grouped data, all they need to do is press the plus sign which will appear, instead of the minus sign on collapsing the data. It is illustrated as follows:

Input:

Expanding Grouped Cells - Input

Output:

Expanding Grouped Cells - Output

The steps above show how all grouped cells are expanded and collapsed in an Excel worksheet to manage multiple fronts of a cluster of data efficiently.

More Resources

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