Working with table rows and columns

In this video, we'll look at how to work with rows and columns to structure data in an Excel Table.

Tables offer special features for working with data.

Once you have a table defined, it is much easier to select and rearrange data in rows and columns.

There are several ways you can add and remove rows.

First, you can use the Insert and Delete buttons on the Home tab of the ribbon.

With any cell selected in the table, Insert will add a new row above. And, the Delete button will delete rows.

Sometimes these buttons don't do exactly what you want.

In that case, you can use the more specific table commands in the menu.

You can access these same commands with the Right-Click menu.

Notice that all of these operations work when more than one cell is selected.

To add new data rows to the end of a table, use the Tab key.

At the end of the last row, Tab will insert a new row below.

Another way to add rows to a table is to paste data below the table. The table will automatically expand to include the pasted rows.

Notice if I delete just the data from a table, the range doesn't change. I need to use the drag handle manually as a second step.

Normally, it makes more sense to delete entire rows from the start.

The support for drag and drop in tables makes them convenient for restructuring data.

With an entire row or column selected, you can just drag to a new location.

To select rows with a mouse, hover over the first cell to the left until you see a small black arrow.

Then, hover the cursor over the edge of the selection until you see a 4-headed arrow. Then you can drag the row to a new location.

The steps are the same for columns, but you'll need to click twice to select the header. 

Hover until you see the arrow, then click twice to select, hover again, and drag the column to a new location.

The right-click menu also has commands to select table rows and columns.

Finally, you can use special keyboard shortcuts to select rows and columns as well.

Use Control + Space to select a column.

Use Shift + Space to select a row.

All of these methods all work with multiple rows and columns as well.