In this article, you’ll learn three ways to move columns in Excel and the situations where each approach is best approach to use:
Copying and inserting columnsUsing copy and paste shortcutsUsing the Shift key and the mouse
With each of these techniques, you’ll learn how to use them to move columns without overwriting other columns or losing any data in your spreadsheet.
Move Columns In Excel – The Standard Way
Move Columns In Excel – The Standard Way
When most people want to move a column from one position to another, they take the approach most people know about. This approach takes extra steps than the others described in this article. However, it’s important to show the process so you can see how much time is saved by using one of the other approaches.
Move Columns With Copy And Insert
Move Columns With Copy And Insert
A much faster approach to move columns in Excel is using the Insert feature in Excel. This approach lets you skip over two steps – creating a blank column and deleting the moved column.
Move Columns With Shift Key And Mouse
Move Columns With Shift Key And Mouse
Another way to move columns in Excel is using the Shift key on your keyboard, and the mouse. This approach does require that you create 3. Left click and hold the mouse, and drag the column into the blank column you’ve created. When you release the mouse pointer, Excel will ask you if you want to replace the contents of the column. Since you’ve made the column blank, you can just select OK. This will place your column into the position of the blank one. If you want to skip the step of creating a blank column, just right-click your mouse to drag the column rather than using the left mouse button. Drag the column over in the same way, but release it on the column where you’d like to insert your column to the left. When you release you’ll see several options of how to insert to column into the slot. If you’ve selected the column to the right of where you want to place your moved column, select Shift Right and Move to insert your column and shift the rest of the columns to the right. Using this approach (right-clicking) reduces the number of steps involved to just selecting the column, right clicking and dragging the column to wherever you would like it to go. By far this is the easiest way to move columns in Excel.
Which Method Is Right For You?
Which Method Is Right For You?
Different people prefer using the keyboard or the mouse to do things in Excel. No approach is necessarily better than the next. It really comes down to which procedure above fits in best into how you normally use Excel. Moving columns in Excel doesn’t have to be complicated, and it doesn’t have to mess up your entire worksheet. Just carefully work through the steps detailed above and you can move entire columns quickly and easily. All of these techniques also work with moving rows in Excel as well.
