fix for unhiding column in Excel has stopped working

I have just moved to Windows 10 and Excel 2016 (from Excel 2000) and found that CTRL-SHIFT-0 no longer works to unhide columns, because it's been hijacked by a language setting (for hotkeys for changing keyboard layout). I followed the instructions I found on this site and changed this setting to Not Assigned, which fixed it and gave me back my Excel keystroke shortcut.

My problem is that now, 2 days later, it has stopped working again, though the language setting is still Not Assigned.

I am wondering if there is something else interfering with CTRL-SHIFT-0 that is still trumping the Excel use of this shortcut.

Any thoughts?

3 Answers

I also had the same problem. It wouldn't work even though I had unassigned the hotkeys to changing the keyboard layout. So I deleted the second keyboard layout and then it worked.

I had a similar experience but didn't have a second keyboard layout to delete so I add a keyboard layout and then deleted it. Now the unhide columns in Excel 2010 works again. Yay!

Edit - next day It seems that the fix is not persistent between boots. Crtl-0 works ok (hide column) but Ctrl-Shift-0 (unhide) does not. Adding or removing a language seems to bring back ctrl-shift-0 functionality, but you need to do that at every boot.

Perhaps something else is intercepting ctrl-shift-0 and altering languages gives control back to the language bar which then passes it onto excel?

You could use a macro and then connect that to a button on your ribbon, because the buttons in your ribbon automatically have a hotkey connected to them. You could use the following code for unhiding all columns.

Sub UnhideAllColumns()
' unhide all columns on the current worksheet
Cells.EntireColumn.Hidden = False
End Sub

I had the same problem. It woudln't work even though I had unassigned the hotkeys to changing the keyboard layout. So I deleted the second keyboard layout and then it worked.