View and Navigation Tools
The View and Sheets group on the DVD Addin tab serves one purpose: making large submission files readable. Bills of quantities running to several hundred rows, programmes stretching across dozens of weekly columns, inspection files with site photos embedded in every table — Excel shows all of them badly by default.
None of these commands change your numbers; they only change how you look at the table. Estimators, QS engineers and site supervisors reach for them most often when reviewing a file someone else produced.
Commands in this group
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Reading Layout | Overlays a highlight on the row and column of the active cell; the band follows the selection |
| Navigation | Opens a task pane docked on the left listing open workbooks and every sheet, with a name filter (Ctrl+Shift+W) |
| View Image | Turns on click-to-enlarge for every picture on the active sheet |
| Hide Empty Rows | Hides — does not delete — rows with no data inside the range you pick |
| Reset Note | Gives every comment box the same width, with height auto-fitting the text |
Sheet management itself (index sheet, batch rename, numbering, bulk hide/unhide) has its own page: Sheet List and Sheet Management.
Reviewing a large submission file
- Open the Navigation pane — press Ctrl+Shift+W or click Navigation. Type in the search box to filter sheets by name, then double-click a row to jump to that sheet.
- Compress the table — run Hide Empty Rows, select the columns that actually hold data at the "Select data range" prompt (for example
B12:H180) and click OK. The add-in reports "Hid N blank rows." - Turn on Reading Layout — select any cell and its row and column are shaded; move the selection and the band follows, including while scrolling or switching sheets.
- Review the site photos — switch to the sheet holding the images and click View Image. The add-in reports "Enabled click-to-enlarge for N images." Click a picture to enlarge it, click again to restore it.
- Normalise the annotations — open Reset Note. The DVD Addin — Reset notes window offers Width (point) (default
150) and Scope (Current sheet only or All visible sheets). Click Apply. - Put the sheet back — click Reading Layout and View Image again to switch them off; to bring hidden rows back, select the rows around the range and use Home → Format → Unhide Rows.
Example
A supervising consultant receives Hoso-Nghiemthu-BlockA.xlsx — 63 sheets named NT-<floor>-<activity>, each one an inspection record with a quantity table and a strip of site photos.
| Step | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ctrl+Shift+W, type T05 in the filter | List narrows to the 7 sheets for floor 5 |
| 2 | Double-click NT-T05-Cotthep | Straight to the record awaiting signature |
| 3 | Hide Empty Rows over B12:H180 | 47 reserve rows hidden, the printout drops from 5 pages to 3 |
| 4 | Turn on Reading Layout | Matching "which activity — what quantity" no longer slips a row |
| 5 | Turn on View Image on Anh-Hientruong | Clicking the 12/08 photo shows the bar spacing and the spacer blocks clearly |
| 6 | Reset Note, width 150, scope All visible sheets | 86 take-off notes share one width and read in full on hover |
Tips and caveats
- Reading Layout is a screen overlay, not a cell fill: it does not alter workbook formatting and does not appear in print or PDF export. The on/off state applies to the current Excel session only.
- While you are typing inside a cell (Edit mode) the overlay pauses until you press Enter or Esc. On a multi-monitor setup with mixed DPI, move the Excel window onto a single screen if the band looks offset.
- Hide Empty Rows only inspects the columns you selected — a row with data in a column outside the range still counts as empty and gets hidden. A formula returning an empty string
"", by contrast, counts as data. - Hide Empty Rows hides the entire row across the full width of the sheet, not just your selection — think twice if another table sits to the right of the range.
- View Image applies to the active sheet only and only to real pictures, not to drawings, text boxes or charts. Click any enlarged picture back to its original size before switching the mode off — switching off only removes the click behaviour, so an enlarged picture stays enlarged and saving the file saves it that way.
- Reset Note handles classic Comments/Notes (the yellow box shown on hover), not Microsoft 365 threaded comments; you set the width only, Excel computes the height.
- Hiding rows, enlarging pictures, resizing notes and the sheet actions in the Navigation pane cannot be undone with Ctrl+Z.
- The Navigation pane is an Excel task pane tied to the Excel window: open a second Excel window and you have to run the command again there. The Ctrl+Shift+W shortcut only works once the add-in has finished loading (after Excel has fully started).
- Renaming, hiding and reordering from the Navigation pane act directly on the workbook; if the workbook's structure is protected, Excel blocks those actions.
- The highlight colour, opacity, mode (row + column / row only / column only) and the picture enlarge ratio all come from the View and Sheets section of the Preferences window.
See also
- Sheet List and Sheet Management — workbook index, batch rename, numbering, bulk hide/unhide.
- Preferences — set the overlay colour, opacity and mode, and the picture enlarge ratio.
- Delete blanks — remove the rows outright once you are sure you no longer need them.
- Pictures — bulk-insert site photos into cells before switching View Image on.