Tip of the week # 530
1 January 2018


Move or copy cells using drag and drop (Microsoft Excel) *

Happy New Year! Let's make 2018 the year that you learn heaps and have fun doing so. Hopefully this tip is a good start and worth checking out . . .

As you know, there are many ways to move or copy cells in Excel. Perhaps you use CTRL + X, CTRL + C and CTRL + V? Or are you a "right-mouse-clicker"? Perhaps you prefer the Cut and Copy buttons on the Home tab? Or maybe you use AutoFill to copy values and formulas into adjacent cells?
But did you know you can also move or copy any cell into any worksheet location by using a drag and drop technique?

Here's how:

Moving cells

  1. Select the cells that are to be moved.
  2. Point to the border of the selection and wait until the mouse pointer appears as a combination of an upward-pointing arrow and four-headed arrow.
  3. Press and hold down the mouse button.
  4. Drag the mouse pointer to the new location.
  5. Release the mouse button.

Copying cells

  1. Select the cells that are to be copied.
  2. Point to the border of the selection and wait until the mouse pointer appears as a combination of an upward-pointing arrow and four-headed arrow.
  3. Press and hold down both CTRL and the mouse button.
  4. Drag the mouse pointer to the new location.
  5. Release the mouse button and CTRL.

You can also move or copy between sheets by holding down the ALT key when dragging the content over the sheet tab.

By the way, the Paste Options button will not be displayed when you use the drag and drop method.

Related tips:

Tip # 397: Copy the content of a worksheet (tip_397.php)

* Unless stated otherwise, these tips were written for Microsoft Office 2010.