MS-Excel / General Formatting

Deleting, Copying, and Moving Data

In the course of putting together a worksheet, it is sometimes necessary to delete, copy, and move cell contents. Here are instructions for doing these chores:

Deleting cell contents:
Select the cells and then press the Delete key, click the Clear button on the Home tab and choose Clear Contents, or right-click and choose Clear Contents. (Avoid the Delete button on the Home tab for deleting cell contents. Clicking that button deletes cells as well as their contents.)

Copying and moving cell contents:
Select the cells and use one of these techniques:
  • Cut or Copy and Paste commands: When you paste the data, click where you want the first cell of the block of cells you're copying or moving to go. Be careful not to overwrite cells with data in them when you copy or move data. After you paste data, you see the Paste Options button. Click this button and choose an option from the drop-down list to format the data in different ways.
  • Drag and drop: Move the pointer to the edge of the cell block, click when you see the four-headed arrow, and start dragging. Hold down the Ctrl key to copy the data.
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In this tutorial:

  1. Refining Excel Worksheet
  2. Editing Worksheet Data
  3. Moving Around in a Worksheet
  4. Better Look at the Worksheet
  5. Freezing and splitting columns and rows
  6. Your own customized views
  7. Hiding columns and rows
  8. Comments for Documenting Your Worksheet
  9. Selecting Cells in a Worksheet
  10. Deleting, Copying, and Moving Data
  11. Handling the Worksheets in a Workbook
  12. Tampering with Worksheets
  13. Hiding a worksheet
  14. Protecting a worksheet