Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 18, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
You probably know the feeling—you start creating a worksheet, get a good way into it, and realize that you should have made your columns into rows and your rows into columns. In other words, you want to turn your data by 90 degrees and continue working with the sheet.
Fortunately, Excel provides an easy way to accomplish this very task. In Excel's terminology, this process is known as transposing data. To transpose your data, follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Paste Special dialog box.
Notice that in step 2 you must use the copy command (Ctrl+C) rather than the cut command (Ctrl+X). This is because you can't choose Paste Special from the Edit menu when you cut information. For this reason, you may want to copy information from one worksheet (steps 1 and 2) and paste it into another (steps 3 through 6). You can play with this method of pasting and select the method that is best for you.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2744) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Quickly Transposing Cells.
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