Datasheet

Adding and Editing Data in a Workbook

As I’m sure you’re aware, if you want to delete all the data in a column or row but leave

the empty column or row in the worksheet, you just select the cells that have the data in them

and press the Delete key, or use the Edit  Clear command, or use the right-click shortcut

menu. But if you want to remove unnecessary rows and columns completely and, in the pro-

cess, automatically adjust the column and row headers, you have a little more of a process to

follow, which I will address in Exercise 1.9.

Hiding Rows and Columns

Assume you have a large worksheet and want to edit data in only a few columns or rows, or

you want to print a special printout that shows only specific columns or rows. In this case, you

wouldn’t want to permanently delete the unneeded rows or columns, but instead just hide

them temporarily. Exercise 1.10 shows you how to do this.

EXERCISE 1.9

Adding and Removing Rows and Columns

1. Still inside Exercise 1-1.xls, move to Sheet3. Click anywhere in column C.

2. Go to the Insert menu and choose Columns, and a new empty column is added to the left

of column C. The new column is now column C and the original column C data is moved

to column D.

3. Right-click in the newly created column C and choose Insert from the shortcut menu.

When the Insert box comes up, choose Entire Column and click OK. This adds a new col-

umn to the left, and again, the column headers are adjusted. (Notice that right-clicking a

cell also allows you to choose Shift Cells Right or Shift Cells Down if you only want to

insert a single cell instead of an entire column or row.)

4. Right-click again and choose Insert  Entire Row and click OK. This adds a new empty

row above the row you are in. This option is also available when you choose Insert  Rows.

5. Click any cell in one of your new empty columns and choose Delete from the Edit menu,

then choose Entire Column and click OK.

6. Right-click the other empty column you inserted and choose Delete  Entire Column,

then click OK. Be sure to delete all of the empty columns you inserted.

7. Using either the Edit or right-click menu, delete the empty row(s) you have inserted by

choosing Delete  Entire Row and clicking OK.

8. Leave the file open for the next exercise.

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