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User profile for user: R_55a
R_55a Author
User level: Level 2
258 points

delete certain cells in Numbers?

I have a Numbers spreadsheet. It has several different tables of varying numbers of rows and columns. One table in the middle of the spreadsheet has one extra column in its middle. This one extra column is empty. It has no data. I do not remember how this empty column got into this one table. But it is sitting there taking up space.


I want to delete this one column within this one table. Doing so will allow me to see the whole table in the limited space of the Desktop. The Table menu has a Delete Column tool. That tool is no good, as it deletes the whole column from the entire spreadsheet. In the other tables on this spreadsheet this column has valuable data. I cannot delete the whole column without spoiling the spreadsheet.


The Edit menu has a Delete tool. When I select the unwanted cells in this one particular table and pull down Edit menu to Delete, Numbers does not respond. The spreadsheet remains unaltered.


Is there a way to delete a column within one table on a spreadsheet without deleting the whole column from the whole spreadsheet?

Posted on Apr 14, 2022 5:25 PM

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User profile for user: Badunit
Badunit
User level: Level 7
28,288 points

Posted on Apr 14, 2022 7:59 PM

It sounds like your spreadsheet uses the Excel method of little "sub-tables" on one monolithic "worksheet". In Excel, a worksheet is one monolithic table of cells and you can make sub-tables within it that usually share columns or rows with other sub-tables. Numbers, on the other hand, has Sheets that are like a blank canvas and you can put multiple independent tables on it, none of which share any columns or rows with any of the others.


But to answer your question as it was asked:

  1. Select all the cells you want to move.
  2. Click and hold somewhere within the the selection box and those cells will "lift" from the table.
  3. Drag and drop them where you want them. They will move to the new location. All formulas that reference them will continue to reference them, if it still makes sense to do so.


You can do that same thing with entire columns or rows or to an Excel-like sub-table. Select an entire sub-table, lift it from the table, and drop it on a blank spot on the sheet and it will create a new table from it.

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User profile for user: Badunit
Badunit
User level: Level 7
28,288 points

Apr 14, 2022 7:59 PM in response to R_55a

It sounds like your spreadsheet uses the Excel method of little "sub-tables" on one monolithic "worksheet". In Excel, a worksheet is one monolithic table of cells and you can make sub-tables within it that usually share columns or rows with other sub-tables. Numbers, on the other hand, has Sheets that are like a blank canvas and you can put multiple independent tables on it, none of which share any columns or rows with any of the others.


But to answer your question as it was asked:

  1. Select all the cells you want to move.
  2. Click and hold somewhere within the the selection box and those cells will "lift" from the table.
  3. Drag and drop them where you want them. They will move to the new location. All formulas that reference them will continue to reference them, if it still makes sense to do so.


You can do that same thing with entire columns or rows or to an Excel-like sub-table. Select an entire sub-table, lift it from the table, and drop it on a blank spot on the sheet and it will create a new table from it.

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delete certain cells in Numbers?

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