Clear Contents in Excel (All Things You Should Know)

In this article, we will show you how you can clear contents in Excel easily. Working with large datasets may require you to clear the contents of datasets quite often. It can be quite tiresome if you don’t know how to clear certain contents.

You may need to clear contents from a single cell or multiple cells. Clearing the contents of multiple cells one by one is time-consuming and tedious. In such cases, you can use the features in Excel to clear content.

You can also use VBA to clear contents automatically.

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Clear Contents.xlsm

How to Clear Contents in Excel

1. Clear Contents Using Keyboard Shortcut

The easiest and quickest way to clear contents is by using the keyboard shortcut: Del / Delete.

Note: This will not clear any formatting.

1.1 Clear Content of a Single Cell

Select the cell that you want to clear contents from and, press the Del / Delete key on your keyboard.

You can see that the content of that cell is cleared.

1.2 Clear Contents from a Range of Cells

If you want to clear contents from multiple cells, select the range of cells and press the Del/Delete key on your keyboard.

You can see that the contents of that range of cells are cleared.

1.3 Clearing Contents from an Entire Row or Column

Select the row or column that you want to clear contents from and, press the Del / Delete key on your keyboard.

You can see that the contents of that row or column are cleared.

1.4 Clear Contents from a Whole Worksheet

Click on the Select All button on the top left corner of the worksheet to remove contents and press the Del / Delete key.

This removes all the contents from the worksheet.

2. Utilizing Clear Button from Editing Option

2.1 Clear All Contents

You can use the Clear button from editing options to Clear Contents, Formattings, Comments and Notes, Hyperlinks, and All Contents.

Select the cells or range of cells that you want to clear contents from and go to Home > Editing > Clear.
We want to clear all the contents from the selected cells so we select Clear All.

You can see that all the contents are cleared.

Note: You can also access the Clear Contents option in the context menu by right-clicking on your mouse over a range of data.

2.2 Clear Formatting from Cells

Select the cells from where you want to clear the formatting and go to Home > Editing > Clear > Clear Formats.

The formatting will be removed without the contents.

3. Applying Go To Special Tool to Clear Contents

Press the F5 function key on your keyboard.
The Go To window appears. Click on Special.

The Go To Special window appears.
Now, select Constants option from the Select group and click on OK.

Press the Del / Delete key on your keyboard to delete the selected contents.

4. Using VBA to Clear Contents

Select the cells that you want to clear contents from and go to the Developer tab >> Visual Basic.

Insert a new module by going to Insert > Module and insert the following code:

Sub Clear_Cells_from_Selection()
Selection.Clear
End Sub

Save the workbook as .xlsm file and Run the code.

Selected cells are cleared.

Things to Remember

Select the cells carefully to delete contents from.
The Del / Delete key does not clear any formatting or comments from the cells. It just clears values.
Save the Excel file as VBA enabled one otherwise you can not run the code.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the difference between clearing contents and deleting cells?

Ans: There is a huge difference between deleting and clearing contents in Excel. Clearing a cell will remove the value from that cell. If you delete a cell the cell with all its formatting will be removed.

2. Which keyboard shortcut can I use to clear the contents of selected cells in Excel?

Ans: You can use the Del / Delete key on your keyboard to clear the contents of selected cells.

3. If I clear the contents of a cell, will the formatting remain?

Ans: Yes, clearing contents will not remove any formatting from a cell.

Conclusion

In this article, we have shown you some quick and effective ways to clear content in Excel. Clearing particular contents can be difficult if you do not know how to clear them. We suggest you go through the full article carefully to understand it better and apply the knowledge afterward according to your needs.

Clear Contents in Excel: Knowledge Hub

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