A Worksheet with a Custom View

In the course of editing a worksheet, you may need to modify the worksheet display many times as you work with the document. For example, you may find at some point that you need to reduce the magnification of the worksheet display to 75% magnification. At another point, you may need to return to 100% magnification and hide different columns in the worksheet. At some later point, you may have to redisplay the hidden columns and then freeze panes in the worksheet.

You can use Excel's Custom View feature to save multiple custom views, each of which contain the display settings you need to use in editing. This way, instead of taking the time to manually set up the worksheet display that you need, you can have Excel re-create it for you simply by selecting the appropriate custom view. When you create a custom view, Excel can save any of the following settings:

• Current cell selection
• Print settings (including different page setups)
• Column widths and row heights (including hidden columns)
• Display settings on the View tab of the Options dialog box (Tools → Options)
• Current position and size of the spreadsheet window
• Window pane arrangement (including frozen panes)

To create a custom view of your worksheet, follow these steps:

1. Make all the necessary changes to the worksheet display so that the worksheet window appears exactly as you want it to appear each time you select the view. Also select all the print settings in the Page Setup dialog box that you want used in printing the view.
2. Choose View → Custom Views to open the Custom Views dialog box.
3. Click the Add button to open the Add View dialog box.
4. Enter a unique descriptive name for your view in the Name text box
5. To include print settings and hidden columns and rows in your view, leave both the Print Settings and Hidden Rows, Columns, and Filter Settings check boxes selected. If you don't want to include these settings, clear either or both check boxes. When you're finished, click OK.

After you define custom views for a spreadsheet, you can invoke their settings by opening the Custom Views dialog box. In the Views list box, either doubleclick the view to use or select the view and click the Show button.

Before you define any custom views that hide columns, freeze panes, and mess with the worksheet's magnification, define a Normal 100% custom view that represents the standard view of the worksheet. That way, you can recover from a special view simply by doubleclicking Normal 100% in the Views list box of the Custom Views dialog box.