The backdrop to this is that you can only split Excel windows on the same workbook.
The backdrop to this is that when you set a column width, or hide a column, or set a background colour for a column, that setting applies to the whole column!
That was bad when a sheet could have 8K rows. It was worse when a sheet could have 64K rows. It is even worse now when a sheet can have 1M rows!
This limitation of columns is another thing which hasn't changed much since the far off days of VisiCalc! Another stark example of a lack of innovation.
Can you imaging a Word Processor where you could only have one ruler for a whole document? It's unthinkable!
So if we combine these two ideas, why couldn't we insert a new ruler at any point in a spreadsheet?
Then you could control columns widths, and hiding, and colours independently every time you have a new ruler.
The mock-up below shows how this might look. Notice that:
- It's a single worksheet: the rows go from 1 to 19.
- The background colour changes with each new ruler
- The column widths change with each new ruler
- Column B is hidden in the third section without affecting the first two sections.
