Google Sheets Move Cells
Moving Cells
There are two ways to move cells: Drag and drop or by copy and paste.
Drag and Drop
Let's start by typing or copying some values that we can work with:
Next, start by marking the area A1:B4
:
You can drag and drop the range by pressing and holding the left mouse button on the border. The mouse cursor will change to a hand symbol when you hover over the border.
Drag and drop it when you see the symbol.
Move the range to B2:C5
as shown in the picture:
Great! Now you have created more space, so that we have room for more data.
Note: It is important to give context to the data, making the spreadsheet easy to understand. This can be done by adding text which explains the data.
Let's go ahead and give the data more context. Type or copy the following values:
Yes, that is right, we are looking at Pokemon! Giving context to the data is always helpful.
Next, lets see how we can move data by using cut and paste.
Cut and Paste
Ranges can be moved by cutting and pasting values from one place to another.
Tip: You can cut using the hotkey Ctrl+X
(Command + X
for Mac) and paste by Ctrl+V
(Command + V
for Mac). This saves you time.
Mark the range A1:C5
Press Ctrl+X
(Command + X
for Mac).
Cutting highlights the borders in dashed lines.
Click on the paste destination B6
and press Ctrl+V
(Command + V
for Mac).
You have successfully cutted and pasted the range from A1:C5
to B6:D10
.
Copy and paste
Copy and paste works in the same way as cut and paste. The difference is that it does not remove the original cells.
Let's copy the cells back from B6:D10
to A1:C5
.
Tip: You can copy using the hotkey Ctrl+C
(Command + C
for Mac) and paste by Ctrl+V
(Command + V
for Mac). This saves you time.
Mark the range B6:D10
.
Press Ctrl+C
(Command + C
for Mac).
Copying highlights the borders in dashed lines.
Click on the paste destination A1
and press Ctrl+V
(Command + V
for Mac).
The difference between cutting and copying, is that cutting removes the originals, while copying leaves the originals.
Next, let's delete the original data and keep the data in the A1:C5
range.
Delete Data
Select the original cells and remove them by pressing the Delete button on the keyboard: