Ensuring Rows and Columns are Empty

It is a well-known fact that if you delete a row or column, Excel dutifully does your bidding, removing whatever was in that row or column. This means that it is easy to delete rows or columns you think are blank, which in fact contain information you cannot see on the screen.

So how do you tell if there is any data without scrolling through the gazillion rows and columns in your worksheet? There is a quick way you can check for data in a row or column. To check a column, follow these steps:

1. Click on the first cell of the column (A1, H1, etc.)
2. Press the End key once. The characters END should appear at the right side of the status bar.
3. Press the down arrow if checking out a column, or the right arrow if checking out a row.

If you prefer, you can accomplish this same task using only two steps:

1. Click on the first cell of the column (A1, H1, etc.)
2. Hold down the Ctrl key as you press the down arrow or right arrow.

Performing these simple steps causes Excel to move to the next cell containing data. If there is no data, Excel selects the last cell in the column (at row 66,536 or row 1,048,576, depending on your version) or the last cell in the row (at column IV or column XFD, depending on your version). You then know that the row or column is empty and you can safely delete it.