How to Edit and Delete Cells in Excel

This is third post in the series, Excel for Finance Professionals. In this post, we will see how to edit individual cells in excel.

First,we will see how to edit/delete individual cells.

To insert individual cell, press Ctrl+Shift+Plus keys.

editanddeletecells1 How to Edit and Delete Cells in Excel

 

editanddeletecells2 How to Edit and Delete Cells in Excel

Please note that even though this shortcut can be useful at times, one should avoid using it because it changes the cell alignment in excel. Instead, one should keep the practice of adding entire rows or columns instead of individual cells.

To edit a particular cell, press F2 key. If the cell contains more than one word, then you can use the combination of Ctrl+Arrow keys to skip the words in the cell.

For example, if there are two words “Pune City” in a cell and if you press Ctrl+Left arrow key near the word “City”, then the control skips the word “City” and goes to previous word i.e. “Pune”. 

- While editing a cell, Ctrl+Shift+Arrow keys highlight the word in the cell.

 

editanddeletecells3 How to Edit and Delete Cells in Excel

- We can add a new line in a cell by using Alt+Enter.

editanddeletecells4 How to Edit and Delete Cells in Excel

 

- To delete the contents of a cell, just go to the cell and press Del key.

 

Note: NEVER use backspace key for deleting as it creates unnecessary white spaces and distortions.

 

However, you can use backspace key to delete individual text but not entire cell.

Another way to delete the cell contents is simply press F2 key to get the cell in editable more and then delete whatever is required. 

 

So these were the shortcuts to edit/delete cells.

 

Now try solving the sample exercise using the keys mentioned above. 

 

Now try this:

1. Create an excel sheet with some data, go to any particular row, go to any cell in that row and try modifying data in that cell. For example, in first row, modify the Product Quantity to 20 instead of 10.

2. Go to the Customer name in the excel sheet, delete one Industry  and enter some new industry name there.

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