Turn Excel table headers on or off

When you create a Microsoft Office Excel table on a worksheet, table headers are automatically added and displayed by default.

Header row in an Excel table

Table headers either display default names that you can change on the worksheet, or you can specify that they display the header data that is on your worksheet. In a long table, table headers replace the worksheet column headings (column heading: The lettered or numbered gray area at the top of each column. Click the column heading to select an entire column. To increase or decrease the width of a column, drag the line to the right of the column heading.) so that they stay visible when you scroll the table data. If you do not want to view the table headers, you can turn them off.

 Note   Table headers should not be confused with worksheet column headings or the headers for printed pages. For more information about how to turn off worksheet column headings or headers for printing, see Use Page Layout view to fine-tune pages before printing.

 Important   To successfully complete this procedure, you must have created an Excel table on your worksheet. For more information, see Create or delete an Excel table in a worksheet.

  1. Click anywhere in the table to make sure that the active cell is in a table column.

 Tip   This displays the Table Tools, adding the Design tab.

  1. On the Design tab, in the Table Style Options group, clear or select the Header Row check box to hide or display the table headers.

Excel Ribbon Image

 Notes 

  • When you turn the table headers off, the table header AutoFilters and any applied filters are removed from the table.
  • When you add a new column when table headers are not displayed, the name of the new table header cannot be determined by a series fill that is based on the value of the table header that is directly adjacent to the left of the new column. This only works when table headers are displayed. Instead, a default table header is added that you can change when you display table headers.
  • Although it is possible to refer to table headers that are turned off in formulas, you cannot refer to them by selecting them. References in tables to a hidden table header return zero (0) values, but they remain unchanged and return the table header values when the table header is displayed again. All other worksheet references (such as A1 or RC style references) to the table header are adjusted when the table header is turned off and may cause formulas to return unexpected results.

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Applies to:
Excel 2007