Datasheet

16
Chapter 1

Navigating in Excel and Understanding the Interface
Managing Cells
Because all cells in a column must be the same width and all cells in a row must be the same
height, cell size management doesn’t include too many options. Most cell size management is
governed by the specifications set on the row or column that contains the cell. You can work
around some of this by merging cells, a process that is covered in Chapter 2.
Cells can be deleted and cleared individually, but deleting a cell is different from clearing
or deleting the content of a cell. Clearing a cell just removes the content, whereas deleting a
cell removes the entire cell and shifts the cells around it to fill the area where that cell was orig-
inally. As Figure 1.5 shows, you can shift the cells up or to the left when deleting a cell.
FIGURE 1.5 When you delete a cell, you have choices for how you want the space filled.
Exercise 1.6 walks you through deleting content and deleting whole cells.
EXERCISE 1.6
Deleting Cells and Clearing Cell Components
1. Still inside Exercise 1-1, move to Sheet1 and select cell D6.
2. Press Delete and then press Enter. Notice that the content in cell D6 has been removed.
3. Click the Undo button to restore the value of 500 into cell D6.
With cell D6 still selected, go to the Edit menu and rest your mouse pointer on the Clear
command. As you can see, you have four choices: All, Formats, Contents (Del), and
Comments. Pressing the Delete key removes the contents of the cell but leaves any for-
matting that has been applied to the cell. To remove all of this, use the Edit Clear 
All command.
4. Select cell C6.
5. Go to the Edit menu and choose Delete.
6. Verify that Shift Cells Up is selected and click OK.
4002book.fm Page 16 Friday, March 24, 2006 11:36 PM