Introduction
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
- Insert cells
- Delete cells
Inserting cells
When working in an Excel worksheet, you may need to insert or delete cells without inserting or deleting entire rows or columns.
To insert cells:
- Select the range where new cells should be inserted.
- Right-click and select Insert.
- The Insert dialog box opens and presents the following four choices:
- Shift cells right: The cells in the same row are shifted right.
- Shift cells down: Selected cells and all cells below them in the same column are shifted.
- Entire row: This inserts an entire row of cells.
- Entire column: This inserts an entire column.
- Choose an option, then click OK.
- Your result displays in the spreadsheet.
![Important point](https://media.gcflearnfree.org/ctassets/topics/com/lesson_check.gif)
![Insert Dialog Box](https://media.gcflearnfree.org/ctassets/topics/5/ex_insert_db.gif)
Deleting cells
To delete cells:
- Select one or more cells.
- To delete cell contents but leave the cell in place, press Delete.
OR
- Right-click and choose Delete.
- The Delete dialog box opens and presents the following choices:
- Shift cells left: Cells in the same row are shifted right.
- Shift cells up: Selected cells and all cells below them in the same column are shifted.
- Entire row: This deletes an entire row of cells.
- Entire column: This deletes an entire column.
- Choose an option, then click OK.
- Your result displays in your spreadsheet.
![Delete Dialog Box](https://media.gcflearnfree.org/ctassets/topics/5/ex_deleteleft_db.gif)