How to select an entire row or column in a spreadsheet

Updated: 07/31/2022 by Computer Hope

To select an entire column or row in a spreadsheet, click the column header or row header. For example, if you clicked the "H" column header (marked in red in the picture below) the "H" column is highlighted. If you clicked the "16" row header (also marked in red), the 16th row is highlighted.

Tip

Using keyboard shortcuts, To select an entire column press Ctrl+spacebar. To select an entire row, press Shift+spacebar.

Overview of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

Once a column or row is highlighted, you can apply any properties or changes that can be done to an individual cell. For example, once an entire column is highlighted, click the center text icon to center all text in that column. You can also press the delete key on the keyboard to delete all highlighted content.

Tip

You can select multiple columns and rows by pressing Ctrl on the keyboard and clicking each column or row header you want to highlight.