What is the equivalent of .hide() that keeps the place in the layout?

Question

When using .hide(), the element is no more participating in the layout of the page. But what if I want to keep its place, i.e I don't want other elements to move because this one is hidden now. How could I do this ?

Answer 1

element.css('visibility', 'hidden')

To undo:

element.css('visibility', 'visible')