Asked By
betsy hupe
0 points
N/A
Posted on - 08/27/2012
Hi,
I’m using Microsoft Excel and am trying to edit a large spreadsheet I created a few years ago to track household expenses.
To make my expenses easier to analyze I spent a lot of time formatting the cells and color-coding different sections. My spreadsheet has been working well but when I wish to add a few more rows and columns to track new categories, Excel will not let me.
To insert additional columns I simply select my chosen columns and press the “Columns” option from the Insert menu. When I complete this procedure I receive the error ‘To prevent possible loss of data, Microsoft Office Excel cannot shift non blank cells off the worksheet’.
I do not encounter this same problem when trying to insert rows into my spreadsheet.
Over the years I have inserted many rows and columns into Excel spreadsheets without any problems.
Why am I receiving this error message all of a sudden?
Can someone help me?
Microsoft Office Excel cannot shift nonblank cells off the worksheet
Hi Betsy,
To resolve this issue, clear each of the cells in the row or column, and then remove any formatting from the remaining rows and columns. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Click the heading cell in the first blank column to the right of your data. (The heading cell is the first cell in each column, and indicates which column you are in).
2. Press and hold down CTRL+SHIFT, and then press the RIGHT ARROW key to select all of the columns to the right of the first column that you clicked.
3. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
4. Click the first blank row below the last row in your data.
5. Press and hold down CTRL+SHIFT, and then press the DOWN ARROW key to select all of the rows below the first row that you clicked.
6. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
Note: To remove any formatting from the remaining cells, continue to follow these steps.
7. Click the small cell between the first row heading and the first column heading to select the entire worksheet.
8. On the Format menu, click Cells, and then click the Border tab.
Note: The formatting added to the remaining cells may vary. Step 8 assumes that you want to remove border formatting. To remove other types of formatting, you may need to change settings under another tab in the Format Cells dialog box.
9. Click None, and then click OK.
10. Click any cell in the row where you want to insert a row.
11. On the Insert menu, click Row. To insert a column click Column.
Hope it helps!
Regards,
Romel
