How do you quickly Shift cells down in Excel?

While working on a worksheet, cells themselves may need to be inserted, moved, or deleted. When cells are changed and moved, the existing cells shift, along with their content, to adjust for the changes to adjacent cells.

First, you'll want to select the cells next to where you want the new ones.

1. Select the cell or cell range where you want to insert the new cells.
2. Click the Insert button list arrow.
3. Select Insert Cells.
   

   The Insert dialog box appears.

4. Select how you want to move the adjacent cells:
   • Shift cells right: Shift existing cells to the right.
   • Shift cells down: Shift existing cells down.
   • Entire row: Insert an entire row.
   • Entire column: Insert an entire column.
5. Click OK.
   

   Right-click the selected cell(s) and select Insert from the contextual menu.

Blank cells are inserted and the existing ones move according to your selection.

1. Select the column or row heading next to where you want to insert new cells.
2. Click the Insert button.
   

   You can also right-click a row or column heading and select Insert from the contextual menu.

The row or column is inserted. Existing rows are shifted downward, while existing columns are shifted to the right.

In Microsoft Excel, the default action when pressing Enter is to move down to the next cell. However, when working with a cell containing multiple lines of text, it can be frustrating to create a new line. Below are the keyboard shortcut keys to make this task easy.

All latest versions of Microsoft Excel

All versions of Microsoft Excel for the PC and Mac now support the ability to press the keyboard shortcut Alt+Enter to move to the next line. To use this keyboard shortcut, type text in the cell. When ready for a new line, press and hold down Alt, then press Enter. The shortcut key can be used as often as needed.

Note

If you are on a Mac and the key shortcut above doesn't work, try Control+Option+Return.

Tip

Instead of adding a note or a lot of text in a cell, create a comment to make the spreadsheet look cleaner. For help creating a comment, see: How to create, edit, and delete a comment in Microsoft Excel.

(This post is the fourth in a series. Previous articles list shortcuts for Microsoft Office, Word, and Outlook.)

Microsoft Excel looks overwhelming sometimes.

Most of us use Excel to maintain contact lists and for accounting or budgeting purposes.

Excel has a multitude of features that I never touch and probably wouldn’t be able to tell you what they do right away.

Improve Your Spreadsheet Skills with Shortcuts

Even for those of us who don’t use Excel to its fullest potential, there are several keyboard shortcuts that will make our spreadsheet editing easier.

Many Excel shortcuts are longer than those for other programs. This is because one type of function can have several options, such as adding borders or freezing panes.

Here are the most useful shortcuts I’ve found for Excel:

• Alt + Enter: Add line break in cell. For this shortcut to work, you need to be in text editing mode (indicated by a blinking cursor).
• Alt + W + F: Freeze panes. A small menu will open so you can select one of these:
  • R: Freeze top row.
  • C: Freeze first column.
  • F: Freeze a certain number of rows. NOTE: you must select a cell in the row below where you want to freeze the pane, then enter the shortcut. (for example, to freeze 2 rows, select a cell in the third row.)
  • F: Unfreeze. If you have rows or columns in freeze pane mode, the “F” option becomes unfreeze.
• Alt + H + B: Add border. The fourth letter indicates what type of border, such as:
  • Alt + H + B + O: Bottom border
  • Alt + H + B + A: All borders
  • Alt + H + B + N: No border
  • Alt + H + B + S: Outside borders
  • Alt + H + B + H: Thick bottom border
  • Alt + H + B + B: Double bottom border
• Shift + Spacebar: Selects row.
• Ctrl + Spacebar: Selects column.
• Alt + =: Autosum numbers.
• Ctrl + ‘: Copy formula from above.
• Ctrl + 9: Hides row.
• Ctrl + 0: Hides column.
• Ctrl + Shift + 9: Unhides row.
• Ctrl + Shift + 0: Unhides column.
• Alt + H + D + R: Delete row.
• Alt + H + D + C: Delete
• Ctrl + Shift + “+”: Insert. Your options are:
  • Ctrl + Shift + “+” + I: Shifts cells right to insert cell.
  • Ctrl + Shift + “+” + D: Shift cells down to insert cell.
  • Ctrl + Shift + “+” + R: Inserts entire row.
  • Ctrl + Shift + “+” + C: Inserts entire column.
• Ctrl + “-“: Delete. You can also delete rows or columns this way, but the shortcuts provided above are quicker. Cell deletion options include:
  • Ctrl + “-“ + L: Shifts cells left.
  • Ctrl + “-“ + U: Shift cells up.
• Alt + Shift + F1: Insert new worksheet.
• Ctrl + Shift + $: Apply currency format to numbers.
• Ctrl + Shift + !: Apply number format with 2 decimal places.
• Ctrl + Shift + %: Apply percentage format to numbers.
• F2: Move to end of text in cell. This shortcut works when in cell selection mode, not text edit mode (indicated by absence of blinking cursor).
• F9: Recalulate all workbooks.
• Alt + H + H: Choose fill color. You can navigate the provided colors with the arrow keys.

Ctrl + Home: Moves to beginning of workbook. This is typically cell A1, but occasionally it will select another cell if there are header rows or frozen rows selected.