There are many scenarios where you may want to move your rows in Excel. It may be because there were errors in the first place, or maybe you just need to reorder the rows. Whatever the reason might be, here in this tutorial, I am going to show you different methods of how you can move rows down in Excel with examples.
How to Move Rows Down in Excel: 6 Ways
I am going to show you a total of six different methods of how to move rows down in Excel. However, the methods can have different results such as whether it replaces the row or not, or leaves an empty space on the previous spot. Go through the methods to find out what output you want and in the long run, try to pick the one for your desired result.
I am going to use all of the methods to move rows down in the same dataset below.
1. Move Rows Down Using Mouse
In Excel, the fastest way to move rows down is to use the mouse to drag and shift them to the new place. If you don’t want to just shift the rest of the rows downward instead of replacing them with the one in the particular position, this method would be the most suitable for you.
In this section, I am going to move the first row of the table down to another position. Follow these steps to see how.
Steps:
- First, select the entire row from the dataset.
- Then move your mouse cursor to the boundary of your selection where your cursor icon will transition into Move Pointer.
- Now press Shift on your keyboard and click and drag the cell to the position where you want to move it to.
- After you have it in your desired position, release the button. You will have your row moved to the row after the line.
You can repeat this for all your desired ones to move rows down.
2. Utilizing Context Menu
If you want to move rows down using commands, Excel provides some basic commands to do that. You can cut the row and instead of pasting, insert the row in the new position. Since pasting replaces the previous values with the new ones, inserting is a better option if you just want to move the row down without removing anything else.
Steps:
- Firstly, select the row you want to move.
- Then cut the row by pressing ‘Ctrl+X’ on your keyboard.
- Now right-click on the row before where you want to insert the row.
- In the context menu, select Insert Cut Cells.
You can have the same result as above.
3. Custom Sort Command to Move Rows Down
This method is especially useful if you want to rearrange all the rows in the dataset. Nevertheless, it can still be used for moving rows down in a table or a dataset in Excel. But before sorting you first need to assign a specific number to each row and then sort the rows according to the numbers.
Follow the steps for a more detailed guide.
Steps:
- First, insert a new column before the dataset by right-clicking on the column number and selecting Insert from the context menu.
- In the new column, assign a number to each column. The order of the numbers should represent the order of the rearranged rows.
- Select the whole dataset.
- Then from the ribbon, go to the Home tab, and from the Editing group, select Sort & Filter.
- Select Custom Sort from the drop-down menu.
- A new Sort dialog box will pop up. In the Column field, select Sorting No. And in the Order field, select Smallest to Largest.
- After that, click on OK. You will have rows moved down (also, some rows moved up).
- Finally, delete the extra column added in the first step to get the original dataset back.
4. Move Rows Down by Dragging
Instead of pressing Shift and dragging, you can simply just click and drag to move rows down in Excel. But this is the same as cutting and pasting the row in the new position. It will replace the previous row with the pasted one. If you want this type of result, follow these steps.
Steps:
- First, select the row you want to move down.
- Move the mouse cursor to the edge of the boundary of your selection where it will transform into a Move Pointer.
- Now, drag the row to your new position.
- Finally, release it. There will be a warning box popping up about replacing, click on OK.
Then you will have your row moved down.
Notice that, this method leaves the previous position of the selected row empty and completely removes the previous row of where you are moving.
Read More: How to Move Rows in Excel Without Replacing
5. Using Ctrl Key
By all the clickings and draggings, there is a method you can keep the selected row in the previous position. At the same time, you can insert a copy of it in the new position. For that, you need to press Ctrl and drag it to the new position.
Follow these steps for a more detailed guide.
Steps:
- First, select the row you want to move.
- Then move your mouse cursor to the boundary of your selection until the move pointer appears in place of the cursor.
- Now press Ctrl on your keyboard. Then, click and drag the row boundary to your new position.
- Upon releasing the click you will have your row shifter to your new position, but at the same time have it in its original position too.
Note: This method will also remove the previous row on the selected position.
6. Move Multiple Rows Down
You can use the dragging method for multiple rows too. But this can only be done if the rows are consecutive. If the selections are non-contagious, unfortunately, you can’t move them by this method.
Here is a detailed guide for moving multiple rows down. I will be moving the first two rows inside the table.
Steps:
- First, select the rows you want to move.
- Then move your mouse cursor to the edge of the selection where it will turn into a Move Pointer.
- Now while pressing Shift on your keyboard click and drag the rows to your new positions.
- Upon releasing the mouse, the selected rows will be moved down to their new positions.
Read More: How to Rearrange Rows in Excel
Download Practice Workbook
You can download the workbook with the dataset used for this article with all the results included in different worksheets from below. Try downloading and practicing yourself while you go through the article.
Conclusion
That concludes all the methods you can use to move rows down in Excel and achieve various results. Hope you have found this article helpful and informative. If you have any questions or suggestions let us know in the comments below.
