There are two ways of inserting cells into an Excel worksheet: you can either insert entire rows or columns or you can insert individual cells. When inserting entire columns or rows, the number of rows or columns that you highlight will correspond to the number inserted.

For example, let's say that we want to insert a header at the top of a worksheet we might want to insert two blank rows. To do this, we would highlight the first two rows of the worksheet by clicking and dragging across the appropriate numbers of the rows. Having selected the rows above which you want the new cells to be inserted, you can then do one of two things. Firstly, in the Home Tab of the Excel ribbon, you can move across to the Cells section and choose Insert and then Insert Sheet Rows. Alternatively, you can right-click on the row number of one of the highlighted rows and choose Insert from the context menu.

When inserting new rows or columns, it may seem logical that the format of the newly inserted cells will correspond to the cells that were highlighted when the new row or column is inserted. However, in fact, the format is copied from the cells above, in the case of rows, and the cells to the left, in the case of columns.

The right-click method of inserting rows or columns is normally faster. However, the slower method has one benefit: you don't have to highlight the number of rows or columns you wish to insert. Even if you highlight a single cell, you can still use the insert button and choose Insert Sheet Columns or Insert Sheet Rows.

Yet another way of inserting cells is to right-click on a cell and to choose Insert. To insert an entire column or row, simply select the appropriate option from the dialog box which appears then click OK.

Naturally, all of the above techniques apply equally well to deleting rows or columns. For example, let's say we have three cells selected going across three columns; we can move across to the Cells section of the Home Tab of the Excel ribbon, click on the Delete button and choose Delete Sheet Columns. This command deletes not just the selected cells but the entire columns that they form part of. Similarly, to use the right-click method, we would right-click on the row or column label and choose Delete from the context menu.

Andrew Whiteman

The The writer of this article is a training consultant with Macresource Computer Solutions, a UK IT training company offering Microsoft Excel 2007 Classes in London and throughout the UK.

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