Office Settings & Configuration

How to Hide or Show Excel Outline Levels on Mac

Maira Mehtab Sep 21, 2026 869 views

Question details

The user needs to know how to hide, show, or manage the outline level numbers that appear to the left of the columns in an Excel spreadsheet.

Product: Excel for Microsoft 365
Device & OS: Mac
Scenario: Managing worksheet data grouping and outline controls to expand or collapse rows and columns.
Observed behavior: Numbers such as 1 and 2 appear to the left of column A, functioning as controls to expand or collapse grouped rows or columns.

Before you start

Before modifying your spreadsheet's outline levels, ensure that you have not accidentally hidden rows or columns that contain essential data for your current task.

Solution 1Recommended

Manage Outline Levels Using the Group and Ungroup Feature

Use the built-in Data menu to control data grouping, which dictates whether the outline buttons (1, 2, etc.) are shown in your workbook.

The numbers appearing on the left side of your worksheet are outline buttons. They automatically appear when rows or columns are grouped together to help you quickly expand or collapse sections of your data. You can easily remove or apply these by toggling the grouping options.

Open the Data tab

Launch your Excel workbook on your Mac and navigate to the 'Data' tab located in the top ribbon menu.

Select grouped data

Highlight the specific rows or columns that are currently grouped (indicated by the outline lines and numbers on the margin).

Ungroup to hide outline levels

Click on 'Ungroup' in the Data ribbon. Removing the grouping will automatically hide the outline level numbers (1, 2) on the left side of the worksheet.

Group to show outline levels

To show the outline levels again, select your desired rows or columns and click 'Group' from the same Data menu to create collapsible sections.

Keyboard Shortcuts: You can also use the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + K to ungroup data, or Command + Shift + J to group data in Excel for Mac.

Manage Data Easily with WPS Office

How to Group and Ungroup Data in WPS Spreadsheet

WPS Office offers a streamlined and highly compatible spreadsheet tool that makes managing data outlines, grouping, and subtotaling incredibly easy on Mac.

1. Open WPS Spreadsheet: Launch WPS Office on your Mac and open your target spreadsheet.
2. Select your data: Highlight the rows or columns you wish to group or ungroup in your worksheet.
3. Navigate to the Data tab: Click on the 'Data' tab located in the top menu ribbon.
4. Use Group/Ungroup: Click 'Group' to create outline levels or 'Ungroup' to remove them and hide the outline numbers.

100% compatible with Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) formats.Intuitive Data tab for seamless row and column grouping.Lightweight application that runs smoothly on Mac devices.Completely free core spreadsheet features.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why did outline numbers suddenly appear in my Excel file?

Outline numbers appear automatically when a user applies grouping to rows or columns, or when the 'Subtotal' feature is used. This is a built-in feature designed to help summarize and navigate large sets of data.

Can I hide the outline symbols without ungrouping the data?

In Excel for Windows, you can hide outline symbols via Excel Options > Advanced > Display options for this worksheet by unchecking 'Show outline symbols if an outline is applied'. On Mac, this specific display toggle might be restricted, requiring you to actually ungroup the data to remove the numbers.

How do I clear an entire outline at once?

To remove all grouping and outline levels in your worksheet simultaneously, go to the Data tab, click the drop-down arrow next to 'Ungroup', and select 'Clear Outline'.

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