How to Manage the Rows and Columns of Data in MS Excel 2007

I would like to talk a little bit about manipulating entire columns and rows of data. So, what happens if you have a data table and you are not particularly happy with the order of the columns, the order of the rows or you would like to even delete or add columns and rows? Well, there are a few tools that you can leverage in order to do this. Let us go ahead and go up to cell A1 and I will just type A1 here on the name box and hit enter.

The first thing I will show you is how to add a column. Let us say that in between columns E and F state infective date, I would like to add a column and this column will let me know whether the state has taxes or not. So, I can right click on column F and you will see something here called Insert. If I select that particular command, I have just added the column to my data set. Now, you will notice that all of the columns to the right of this new column that I have added shifted over. And now, I can fill in this column just as I would with any other of cell in its cell.

In order to delete this column, I can simply right click and select delete and I can do the same thing with rows. I can add a row by clicking on the location where I want the new row added. Right click, click on Insert and I can delete that row, right click and select delete. Now, if I wanted to add more than one column or row, I would simply highlight the number of columns or rows that I would require. Right click and select Insert and as you can see, Excel added the number of rows that I have just selected there.

I can do the same thing with columns. I am highlighting three columns so Excel is going to add three columns. Very good! Let me go ahead and hit undo several times so I can return my spreadsheet to that state. And there is going to be times where you want to change the order of columns. For example, let us say that I want product description right next to customer instead of state, what I can do there is select the product description and I am going to right click and select Cut. Now, Cut will actually cut out that particular column and place it into the location where I specified it. I am going to specify that. It goes right here. Right before column E. Select Insert Cut cells and now my product description columns is in the place where I wanted.

I do the same thing with the set of rows. I can select row six through 19 and say that I do not want these rows here. I actually want them down further. I can right click these set of rows, select Cut, go down to the place where I want them and I will go to row 44 and I will right click, select Insert Cut Cells. And now, the cells that I have cut out up top are pasted in this location. At this point, you should feel fairly comfortable with the different methods of getting data into Excel and navigating your data tables. From here, you will explore some of the different technique user define, filter and sort your data tables.


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