Excel is a spreadsheet software by Microsoft that has been in use for decades. This software is widely trusted by many professionals as well as non-professionals to manage their day-to-day activities and expenditure. In this article, we explain how to move or copy cells, rows and columns in Excel.

By using the Cut, Copy and Paste command

Here are the steps to move or copy cells, rows and columns in Excel.

Step 1: On the Excel spreadsheet, select the row or column that you want to move or cut. As you can see from the screenshot below, I have selected the A column from A1 to A6. Step 2: Once the row or column is selected, click on the Cut or Copy option at the top left of the screen. When you will cut a certain row or column, you will see that the column is highlighted. Step 3: Next, go to the cell location where you want to paste the row or a column. To paste, either use the shortcut Ctrl + V or select the cell and then click on the Paste option at the top. As you can see from the screenshot below, I have selected the G1 cell to paste the column. You can also use the Cut command shortcut Ctrl + X and Copy command shortcut Ctrl + C in Step 2. Or, you can select the row or column and then right-click from the mouse and then select the Cut, Copy or Paste option as per your requirement. Look at this screenshot. All the marked contents are now in G column.

Remember, the cell where you will paste is the starting point of the row or column. So, select the cell accordingly.

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By using the mouse to hover the rows and columns

If the previous method looks boring or tedious, you can try this method. This method requires no clicks whatsoever.

Select the row and column in Excel that you have to move, then go to the border of that selected location. When you hover the mouse on the border, it will change the appearance. This is the indication that you can now move the selected portion across the entire spreadsheet. Now, hold the left button of the mouse and then move to the desired location. Remember to keep pressing the left button of the mouse. In the screenshot below, I have moved the contents of the G column back to the A column.

This method only works if you want to move adjcent rows or columns from one point to another and does not work if you need to move non-adjcent ones. To move the non-adjcent ones, either move them individually or try the first method.

If you want to replace the data on the final location with the previous data, click OK when the following message is displayed on the screen: There’s already data here. Do you want to replace it? Look at the screenshot below.

How to copy or move rows, columns and cells via the Excel app? 

On the smartphone app, you can tap on any row or column (For eg. A or 1) and a toolbar will appear (as shown in the image below). The first option in the toolbar helps you cut the entire row or column and move it at some other location on the spreadsheet and the second option will help you copy the row or column. To get the same toolbar on a cell, you’ll need to long-press.

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