Very Hidden!

Our cat, Marble, looking out of the window.

Most experience Excel users know that a spreadsheet may be hidden.  Sometimes, you need reference information but would not like to expose that to user interaction.  But, if you can easily hide a sheet, you can easily unhide a sheet.

I just learned today that a spreadsheet may have three values.  Visible, hidden, and very hidden.  I kid you not, it's called "very hidden."  That sounds like mostly dead from The Princess Bride.

You can only very hide or very unhide a page from the VBA editor, which you access from the developer tab (which is not exposed by default.)  Cick on a worksheet, then, in the property window, you can modify the values.

Very Hidden Dialog

So Why?

So you have a spreadsheet, and you want to store data for a drop down.  You could store it in a separate file, but that is messy.  You could store it in a database, but that can present its own series of challenges.  You can embed the data directly as a spreadsheet in your workbook, but that would mean you can have users change the values.  Every programmer knows that allowing users to change such data is a recipe for disaster.  "It doesn't work!"  they will cry, after messing with the spreadsheet labeled. "Do not change"

You can hide a sheet, sure.  But you underestimate the resourcefulness of the general user.  If a feature is available in a menu, a user will find it and use it.  Trust me, they will FIND IT.

The "Very Hidden" selector is in a different editor, only accessible through a tab which is usually not exposed.  Therefore, if someone can get there, they should be sophisticated enough to read (and heed) the "Don't Change This" warnings.