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How Do I Insert a Cell In Numbers for Mac?

Hi, just got a new Mac and wanted to try using Numbers instead of Excel. But I can’t figure out how to insert a cell–which I do a lot in excel. Can you help. It could be inserting one cell or a few cells but not a whole column or row.
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Dharmini

Comments: 2 Responses to “How Do I Insert a Cell In Numbers for Mac?”

    4 years ago

    Normally, you wouldn't want to do that. The idea with spreadsheets, whether Numbers or Excel, is that each row represents a record of data, and each column is a field in that record. So inserting a single cell that pushes the other cells in a row down, or the other cells in a column to the right, would break those records and mess everything up.

    But I could see wanting to do that if you are using Numbers for something unconventional, like designing a table of cells that represent something visual.

    In that case, you can simply select the remainder of the cells in that row or column and drag them to insert a single cell. So if the idea is to insert a blank cell at C4 and move C4 to C10 down by one, just select C4 to C10, click and drag that group of cells down by one, and then you get a blank C4 and the rest now at C5 to C11.

    Dharmini
    4 years ago

    Thanks so much. I appreciate your quick answer! This confirms that Numbers does not do this in an automatic way. One can easily do it in Excel--it automatically shifts cells left, right, up, down for you and you don't have to select and drag (though you can). But, it may still not be a showstopper for me. Excel/Numbers can be used for all sorts of things-not just traditional business things-so there really is not a "normal" unless you are using it only for some fixed uses that have rules.

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