7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

Blog Resources

3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in

Excel + VBA Tutorial
by Jon Acampora January 20, 2015

Bottom line: Learn a few di erent ways to unhide (show) multiple sheets at the same time
with a VBA macro or add-in.

Skill Level:Intermediate

Cannot Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel??

As you probably know, you cannot unhide two or more sheets at the same time in Excel.
The Unhide menu only allows you to select one sheet at a time.

This can make the process of unhiding multiple sheets very time consuming, especially if you
want to unhide all the sheets in the workbook. So in this article we will look at a few
di erent ways to quickly make sheets visible.

#1 Use the VBA Immediate Window to

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 1/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

#1 Use the VBA Immediate Window to

Unhide All
The fastest way to make all the sheets visible in Excel is to use a macro (VBA). The following
line of VBA code uses a For Next Loop to loop through each sheet in the active workbook
and make each sheet visible.

For Each ws In Sheets:ws.Visible=True:Next

You can run this code in the VB Editors Immediate Window in three easy steps:

1. Alt+F11 (opens the VB Editor Window)

2. Ctrl+G (opens the Immediate Window)
3. Paste the following line of code in the Immediate Window and press Enter
For Each ws In Sheets:ws.Visible=True:Next

The screencast below shows how to implement these steps.

That line of code loops through all the worksheets in the workbook and sets each sheets
visible property to True. This makes each sheet visible, which is the same as unhiding each
sheet.

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 2/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

The colon character : used in the code allows you to basically combine multiple lines of
code into one line. This makes it possible to run in the Immediate Window because the
Immediate Window only evaluates one line of code at a time.

Checkout my article on 5 Ways to Use the VBA Immediate Window to learn more. And a big
thanks to Jan Karel Pieterse ofwww.jkp-ads.comforsharing this trick in the comments
section.

#2 Use a Macro to Unhide Multiple Sheets

If you are scratching your head at that line of code in #1, this section should help explainit
better.

The macro below is basically that same line of code, but it is broken up into multiple lines.
This makes it much easier to read and understand.

Sub Unhide_Multiple_Sheets()
Dim ws As Worksheet

For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets

ws.Visible = xlSheetVisible

Next ws

End Sub

Download the le that contains the macro.

Unhide Multiple Sheets Macro.xlsm (64.2 KB)

The lines in the code above that start with For and Next represent a For-Next Loop
Statement. The rstline For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets tells the macro to
loop through each worksheet in the worksheets collection of the workbook.

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 3/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

That line also references the variable ws and sets it to represent the worksheet object.
This means that ws temporarily represents the current worksheet in the loop.

When the Next ws line of code is hit, the macro jumps back up to the rst line of code
within the loop and evaluates it again. It continues to loop through all the sheets in the
workbooks worksheet collection (Activeworkbook.Worksheets).

We can then use ws inside the loop to change the current worksheets properties. In this
case we are setting the Visible property of the sheet to be visible (xlSheetVisible). The
visible property has three di erent properties to choose from:

xlSheetHidden
xlSheetVeryHidden
xlSheetVisible

You can also set the property to True, which works the same as xlSheetVisible.

Here is the documentation on the VBA Visible property from Microsoft. And checkout my
article on the For Next Loop for a detailed explanation of how it works.

Unhide Sheets That Contain a Speci c Name

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 4/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

Unhide Sheets That Contain a Speci c Name

What if we only want to unhide the sheets that contain the word pivot in the sheet name?

We can add a simple IF statement to the macro to only unhide sheets that contain a speci c
name or text.

Sub Unhide_Sheets_Containing()
Dim ws As Worksheet

For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets

If InStr(ws.Name, "pivot") > 0 Then
ws.Visible = xlSheetVisible
End If
Next ws

End Sub

Download the le that contains the macro.

Unhide Multiple Sheets Macro.xlsm (64.2 KB)

The InStr function searches for text in a string and returns the position of the rst
occurrence of the text. It is short for InString, and the function is similar to the SEARCH or
FIND functions in Excel.

So in this case we are looking for any sheet that contains the word pivot in the sheet name.
The ws.name reference returns the name of the worksheet that is currently being
evaluated in the For-Next loop.

So this line If InStr(ws.Name, pivot) > 0 Then basically says, if the word pivot is found in
the sheet name then the Instr function will return a number greater than zero. The IF
statement will evaluate to True and the next line of code will be run to unhide the sheet.

If the word pivot is NOT found in the sheet name, then the IF statement will evaluate to
False and the code will skip all lines until it gets to the End If line. Therefore, the sheet that
is currently being evaluated in the loop will keep its current visible property (visible or
hidden).

This macro works great if you are hiding and unhiding sheets every day/week/month for a
report that you maintain. Run the macro to unhide speci c sheets when you open the
https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 5/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

workbook. After you are nished, run the same codebut change the visible property to
xlSheetHidden to re-hide the sheets (you can create a new macro for this).

#3 Use Tab Hound or Tab Control

If all this code is making your head spin, the Tab Hound Add-in allows you to unhide multiple
sheets with the click of a view buttons.

The screencast below shows how simple this is.

The Tab Hound window contains a list of all the sheets in the workbook. You can select
multiple sheets in the list, then press the Unhide button to unhide all the selected sheets.

This makes the process of unhiding multiple sheets really fast!

Tab Hound also contains additional ways to lter the sheet list. You can type a search in the
search box, lter for all visible or hidden tabs, and even lter by tab color. This makes it easy

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 6/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

to nd the sheets you are looking for and then perform actions on them like
hiding/unhiding.

This video also shows how to quickly hide and unhide multiple sheets with Tab Hound.

Tab Hound Guide - Hide and Unhide Multiple Sheets

Click here to learn more about Tab Hound

Publishing Reports? Tab Control Will Save You Time

If you are producing weekly or monthly reports, and want to make sure all the right sheets
are hidden before you send it out, the Tab Control add-in can save you a lot of time.

Here is a scenario that we commonly face

We need to update a workbook with new data this week and make some changes before
emailing it out. Those updates require us to unhide a few sheets, make the changes, then
hide the sheets again. It can be a time consuming process if you have to hide/unhide a lot of
sheets.

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 7/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

Tab Control will setup a control sheet in your workbook with a list of all the worksheet
names. You can set the visible property for each sheet in the list, then click a button to hide
or unhide all the sheets based on the list.

This means you can setup the control sheet to a speci c view, so only speci c worksheets
are visible. Click the Run Update button and all sheets will be hidden/unhidden based on
your control sheet. This ensures that your report will show the correct sheets everytime you
send it out, and make you look really organized.

The Tab Control add-in is included with Tab Hound.

Click here to learn more about Tab Hound

Conclusion
Unhiding multiple sheets at the same time in Excel will require code or a macro. There is one
other way using Custom Views, but it has limitations if you use Excel Tables (and I love
Tables).

Hopefully you learned some VBA code that you can implement. You can also add the macros
to your Personal Macro workbook to run them anytime you need.

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 8/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

If coding isnt your thing then checkout the Tab Hound add-in. It will save you time and
make your life a lot easier. (win-win!)

Please leave a comment below with any questions. Thanks!

Jon Acampora
Welcome to Excel Campus! I am excited you are here. My name is Jon and
my goal is to help you learn Excel to save time with your job and advance in
your career. I've been an avid Excel user and VBA developer for 10+ years. I
am also a Microsoft MVP. I try to learn something new everyday, and want
to share this knowledge with you to help you improve your skills. When I'm
not looking at spreadsheets, I get outdoors and surf. :) more about me

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 14 comments

John - February 8, 2017

Just wanted to give a BIG thank you to Jerry. I am editing a workbook

created by someone whos no longer at our company and could not
gure out how to keep the current sheet active when checking boxes to
unhide other sheets. Ive literally been looking for an answer for days,
and low and behold, here it is. The bookmark makes things work
exactly as desired.

Thanks again!

Reply

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 9/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

Sophia - January 24, 2017

The rst suggestion helped so much! I use Excel 2016. Thank you!!

Reply

Jon Acampora - February 4, 2017

Awesome! Thanks Sophia!

Reply

Val Klimer - January 10, 2017

Jon,

Thank you, used rst option and worked great thank you for your
expertise and straight forward solutions, like the bookmark too Jerry!

Make it a great day! VMK

Reply

Jon Acampora - January 13, 2017

Thanks Val!

Reply

nancmadi - January 4, 2017

THANK YOU!!!

Reply

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 10/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

Wade Galt - December 6, 2016

AWESOME! Thank You

Reply

Jon Acampora - December 10, 2016

Thanks Wade!

Reply

Abbie - November 30, 2016

Hi Jon.

I need help. I want to create a macro where if the cell value is lets say
Calculation Method 1 and i click on a button beside it Calculate then
it will show only the worksheet speci c for calculation method 1. and if
Calculation Method 2 then worksheet for method 2 and so on.

How can I do that?

Reply

Jon Acampora - December 1, 2016

Hi Abbie,

If the sheet name is the same as the calculation method name

then you could do something like the following. This assumes the
calculation method is in cell A1. You can modify to t your needs.

Sub Unhide_Multiple_Sheets()
Dim ws As Worksheet

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 11/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets

If ws.name = Range("A1").Value
ws.Visible = xlSheetVisible
Else
ws.Visible = False
End If
Next ws

End Sub

I hope that helps.

Reply

Lorrie - September 29, 2016

I just used option 1 perfect. Thanks!!

Reply

Jon Acampora - October 4, 2016

Awesome! Thanks for letting me know Lorrie!

Reply

Jerry Cook - January 21, 2015

Hey Jon! Happy New Year! And GREAT STUFF! Keep it up!

Here another variation of the Unhide All with a couple totally

unnecessary bells and whistles I assembled a few years back to help
the boss out

Assign the macro to a new button in your ribbon or QAT for easy
access.
https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 12/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

Oh, and the Bookmark feature works great in any multi-sheet VBA
operation to bring you back to the worksheet you started the macro
from.

Cheers! Jerry

Sub UnhideAllWorksheets()

Dim i As Long, j As Long, ws As Long, hidden As Long

Dim Bookmark As Object
Set Bookmark = ActiveSheet
hidden = 0
ws = ActiveWorkbook.Sheets.Count
For i = 1 To ws
If Sheets(i).Visible = False Then hidden = hidden + 1
Next

If MsgBox(There are & ws & total sheets in this workbook. & vbCrLf
& vbCrLf & _
Do you want to expose the & hidden & hidden sheets?, _
vbQuestion + vbYesNo) vbYes Then Exit Sub

For j = 1 To ws
Sheets(j).Visible = True
Next

MsgBox (All sheets are now visible)

Bookmark.Activate
End Sub

Reply

Jon Acampora - January 21, 2015

Thanks Jerry! This is great! I like that bookmark feature. If anyone

is wondering, the bookmark feature basically remembers the
sheet you started on, and then selects that sheet again at the
end of the macro, after the unhide loop. Since the code is

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 13/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

looping through all the sheets and unhiding them, it typically

ends on the last sheet that is unhidden. This means you will be
viewing the last unhidden sheet when the loop is complete. To
stay on the sheet you start on, Jerry has created a variable
named Bookmark in his macro. He sets the variable as the
activesheet before the unhide loop is run, to store it in memory,
then selects the sheet at the end of the macro with the
Bookmark.Activate line.

Thanks again for sharing Jerry!

Reply

Leave a Reply:
Name* Email*

SUBMIT

Search

What Are You looking For?

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 14/15
7/31/2017 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel + VBA Macros

Blog Resources Courses Add-ins Contact About Me

Copyright text 2016 by Excel Campus. -Designed by Thrive Themes | Powered by

https://www.excelcampus.com/vba/unhide-multiple-sheets-excel/ 15/15