Select visible
Location on ribbon: Tab DVD Addin → Group Cells and Rows → Menu Merge cells
Command ID: btnSelectVisible
What it does
The command narrows the current selection down to the cells that are visible, dropping every row or column hidden by AutoFilter, grouping or Hide. It is Excel's Go To Special → Visible cells only, in a single click instead of four.
Use it before copying filtered data, colouring, clearing or reformatting, so the action never reaches the hidden rows.
How to use
- Filter or hide rows as usual, then select the block of data you want to work on.
- Click DVD Addin → Cells and Rows → Merge cells → Select visible.
- The selection becomes several separate areas covering only the visible cells (the marching-ants border breaks at each hidden row).
- Carry on: Ctrl+C, apply a fill, clear contents, change formatting, and so on.
Example
A 500-row quantity sheet is filtered to the "Superstructure" section. Select A2:H500, click Select visible, then Ctrl+C and paste into a new sheet — only the superstructure rows are copied, with none of the filtered-out rows.
Notes
- A selection is required before clicking; otherwise the status bar shows "Please select a range".
- If the range contains no visible cell at all, Excel raises an error and the selection is left unchanged.
- The command only changes the selection, never the data — clicking it by accident is harmless.
- Pasting a visible-cells-only selection still follows Excel's rules: the data lands contiguously at the destination.
Related
- Copy/Paste visible — copies between two ranges while skipping hidden rows on both sides.
- Delete hidden rows — removes hidden rows outright instead of skipping them.
- Hide empty rows — hide rows first, then work on what remains.