Create an Outline in Excel

If you are working with a large document that contains many calculations or details you can use an outline to create summary reports. The outline can summarize either an entire worksheet or a selected portion of it. When you create the outline, Excel organizes the data by levels. It's almost like an outline used for PowerPoint or when writing a report. Each level can be expanded or collapsed. A worksheet can have up to eight levels of detail.

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How To Outline Data:

1. Select the desired range of cells.
   • Make sure that the summary rows or columns you want to outline are located in the same position relative to the detail data.
   • For example, the summary columns may be located either to the right or to the left of the detail data, but not in both positions.
2. Choose Data, Group and Outline, Auto Outline.

You should now see + and - signs above the column headings and to the left of the row headings. Click on the + to expand and the - to collapse.