Please ignore above post.  I discovered how to do it: I assigned
each column to hide to a TkTextTag with 'elide' => true.

"Albert L. Wagner" wrote:
> 
> I need to hide several columns of text on the left side of a
> document under program control, i.e., narrow the view so that the
> horizontal scroll bar cannot bring the hidden columns into view,
> yet the hidden columns will still contain data.  This is very
> like the way that TkCanvas can set a -scrollRegion. Is this
> possible with the TkText widget?  If so, how might I do that?
> --
> "It requires wisdom to understand wisdom:
>  the music is nothing if the audience is deaf."
>  - Walter Lippman

-- 
"It requires wisdom to understand wisdom:
 the music is nothing if the audience is deaf."
 - Walter Lippman