Hide and Restore Rows and Columns in Calligra Sheets

Hide a helper column temporarily, then restore it without rebuilding the data. Practice on a small report so you can also see why hiding a row must not be mistaken for excluding its amount from a calculation.

Scope and safe preparation

This exercise uses English Linux/KDE-oriented controls from official Calligra source commit 72123cc643f6625351139e7df294544255a1056f (v26.08.2). The hosted KDE handbook identifies itself as revision 2.7, March 11, 2013; its KF6 address does not establish current runtime behavior. No native application execution, screenshot, printing result or save/reopen success is claimed here. If your build’s controls differ, stop rather than substituting Excel or Calc commands.

Start with an empty, unprotected worksheet, without filters, charts, merged cells or previously hidden rows/columns. Hiding affects the entire row or column, including unrelated content elsewhere on it. Keep real records out of this practice file. Hiding is not deletion, encryption or access control; do not use it to conceal confidential data before sharing a workbook.

Build a checkable report

Enter these cells individually in A1:D4:

Row	A: Task	B: Units	C: Unit effort	D: Total effort
2	Labels	4	3	=B2*C2
3	Packs	5	2	=B3*C3
4	Checks	2	4	=B4*C4

Put the column labels in row 1. D2:D4 should be 12, 10 and 8. In A6 enter All tasks; in D6 enter =D2+D3+D4, expecting 30. In F3 enter Same-row witness. This deliberately places text outside the table but on row 3.

Inspect each formula and save visibility-base.ods. Make a separate working copy named visibility-working.ods. These independently calculated results are acceptance targets, not observations from a running Calligra instance.

Hide one row and inspect the consequence

1. Select A3 only, within the Packs row. Choose Format → Row → Hide Rows.
2. Check that the row labels skip from 2 to 4. Packs and its values should be out of view, and F3’s witness should disappear too. Selecting only A3 does not limit hiding to column A.
3. Check D6. It should remain 30 because its formula still references all three effort cells. The visible task amounts, 12 and 8, add to 20, but that is not the meaning of D6.
4. Do not rewrite D6 to 20 merely to make it agree with the visible rows. Decide whether you need a complete total or a different, explicitly defined report.

In the reviewed command, hiding changes row-format visibility rather than deleting the row’s cell values. That is the basis for this preservation check. A hidden intermediate value can still matter to a calculation.

Restore the exact hidden row

Choose Format → Row → Show Rows…. In Select hidden rows to show:, select Row: 3, then choose OK. Do not just open the chooser and assume its listed rows are selected.

Verify all three task labels, B3 5, C3 2, D3’s formula =B3*C3, D3 10, F3’s witness and D6 30. The row number must again be 3, not a newly inserted row. Do not use Insert Rows or type a replacement record to imitate a successful restoration.

If the chooser is empty, cancel. Check whether you are on the correct sheet and whether the missing records came from a filter instead. This chooser enumerates manually hidden rows; it is not a universal reset for filtered records.

Hide and restore a helper column

1. With row 3 restored, select C2 only and choose Format → Column → Hide Columns.
2. Check that column labels skip from B to D. The entire Unit effort column is hidden, including C1, not just C2.
3. D2:D4 should still display 12, 10 and 8, with D6 30. Do not shift formulas left or delete their references because C is temporarily absent.
4. Choose Format → Column → Show Columns…. Select Column: C under Select hidden columns to show: and choose OK. This example assumes the usual lettered column headings; a sheet configured for numeric column headings can list Column: 3 instead.
5. Check the original C2:C4 values 3, 2 and 4, then change C3 to 3. D3 should become 15, and D6 35. Restore C3 to 2 and check 10 and 30 again.

The changed-input check distinguishes preserved formulas from numbers that merely looked correct before hiding. Keep rows and columns fully restored for the final practice file.

Finish and troubleshoot

Save the restored result as visibility-final.ods. Close and reopen a copy, then inspect every original cell, F3 and the D6 formula. Repeat the C3 change locally before relying on the file. Save/reopen is a reader check still awaiting native verification, not a recorded result of this guide.

• An unrelated note vanished: it may share the hidden row or column. Restore that row/column before changing the note.
• The wrong item is restored: the chooser can list multiple hidden items. Select the intended row number or column letter, then verify the original cell addresses.
• The Show chooser does not recover filtered records: use the separate Auto-Filter reset workflow. Manual hiding and filtering have distinct state in the reviewed implementation.
• Formulas no longer match: inspect whether a Remove command was used instead of Hide. Recover a new working copy from visibility-base.ods; do not guess deleted records or rely on Undo after reopening.
• The layout will be printed: inspect preview and the actual output independently. This exercise does not validate printing or export behavior for hidden data. See the print-layout guide.

Hiding a whole sheet, frozen headings, split views, visible-only aggregation and protected-sheet behavior are separate workflows not established here. For ordinary presentation changes that keep everything visible, use cell formatting and styles.

Primary sources and verification boundary

• KDE hiding handbook: manual row/column visibility and restoration concept.
• Pinned menu definition and action registration.
• Row/column actions and Show chooser: labels, hidden-item enumeration and explicit selection.
• HideShowManipulator: selected row/column bounds and visibility flags rather than cell deletion.

The fixture’s arithmetic was checked outside Calligra. It does not establish native GUI behavior, screenshot provenance, persistence or other-application compatibility.