How to Delete Cells in Microsoft Excel

By eHow Computers Editor

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Excel is a highly customizable and generally user-friendly spreadsheet application. However, when you enter a lot of data and suddenly discover you've created some cells you don't need, you are faced with the challenge of removing the cells without messing up your rows, columns and formulas. You must follow some specific steps to delete cells and keep all your work in order.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Step1

Select the cell or range of cells you want to delete. To select multiple cells, click in the first cell and drag down or over to the last cell.

Step2

Go to the "Edit" menu and choose "Delete." A dialog box pops up.

Step3

Decide how you want your data moved to fill the space of the deleted cells. Choose "Shift cells left" to have the data in the rows with the deleted cells slide over. Choose "Shift cells up" to have the data in the columns with the deleted cells move up. All formulas will adjust accordingly.

Step4

Delete an entire row or column in Excel by choosing "Entire row" or "Entire column." All data under a deleted row shifts up and all data to the right of a deleted column shifts to the left.

Step5

Click "OK" to confirm to Excel you want to delete the cells.

Step6

Clear the contents of a cell without removing the actual cell by selecting the cells you want cleared and pressing "Delete" on your keyboard. The data is removed from the cell, but all formatting remains. To clear formulas or comments from the cells, choose "Clear" from the "Edit" menu and then click what you want cleared.