10 Minute Guide to Excel for Windows 95

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Inserting and Deleting Cells, Rows, and Columns

In this lesson, you will learn how to rearrange your worksheet by adding and deleting cells, rows, and columns.

Inserting Cells

Sometimes, you will need to insert information into a worksheet, right in the middle of existing data. With the Insert command, you can insert one or more cells, or entire rows or columns.


Panic Button: Shifting Cells Inserting cells in the middle of existing data will cause those other cells to shift down a row or over a column. If you added formulas to your worksheet that rely on the contents of the shifting cells, this could throw off the calculations (see Lessons 13 and 14). Your formulas are affected when you insert a cell or group of cells. However, formulas adjust automatically when you insert entire rows or entire columns.

To insert a single cell or a group of cells:

1. Select the cell (s) where you want the new cell (s) inserted. Excel will insert the same number of cells as you select.

2. Pull down the Insert menu, and choose Cells. The Insert dialog box shown in Figure 12.1 appears.

3. Select Shift Cells Right or Shift Cells Down.

4. Click on OK, or press Enter. Excel inserts the cell(s) and shifts the data in the other cells in the specified direction.

Figure 12.1
The Insert dialog box.


Timesaver Tip: Drag Insert A quick way to insert cells is to hold down the Shift key while dragging the fill handle (the little box in the lower right corner of the selected cell(s)). Drag the fill handle up, down, left, or right to set the position of the new cells.

Removing Cells

In Lesson 11, you learned how to clear the contents and formatting of selected cells. This merely removed what was inside the cells. If you want to remove the cells completely, perform the following steps:

1. Select the range of cells you want to delete.

2. Pull down the Edit menu, and choose Delete. The Delete dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 12.2.

3. Select the desired Delete option: Shift Cells Left or Shift Cells Up.

Figure 12.2
The Delete dialog box asks where you want surrounding cells shifted.

Inserting Rows and Columns

Inserting entire rows and columns in your worksheet is similar to inserting a cell(s). Here's what you do:

1. Do one of the following:

2. Open the Insert menu.

3. Select Rows or Columns. Excel inserts the row(s) or column(s) and shifts the adjacent rows down or adjacent columns right. Figure 12.3 simulates a worksheet before and after a row is inserted.


Timesaver Tip: Shortcut Insert To quickly insert rows or columns, select one or more rows or columns, and then right-click on one of them. Choose Insert from the shortcut menu.

Figure 12.3
Inserting a row in a worksheet.

Deleting Rows and Columns

Deleting rows and columns is similar to deleting cells. When you delete a row, the rows below the deleted row move up to fill the space. When you delete a column, the columns to the right shift left. To delete a row or column:

1. Click on the row number or column letter of the row or column you want to delete. You can select more than one row or column by dragging over the row numbers or column letters.

2. Pull down the Edit menu, and choose Delete. Excel deletes the row(s) or column(s) and renumbers the remaining rows and columns sequentially. All cell references in formulas and names in formulas are updated appropriately, unless they are absolute ($) values (see Lesson 14). Figure 12.4 simulates a worksheet before and after a row is deleted.

Figure 12.4
Deleting a row in a worksheet.


In this lesson, you learned how to insert and delete cells, rows, and columns. In the next lesson, you will learn how to use formulas.


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