Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Easily Adding Blank Rows.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 26, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
There may be a time when you are working with a table and you want to insert a blank row between each existing row in the table. There are several easy ways to do this. If you don't want to use a macro, you can follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Sort dialog box.
The above steps work because of the way in which Excel does its sorting. If, for some reason, you end up with two blank rows next to each other (in other words, the sorting does not work exactly as it should have), then you can modify the process slightly. In steps 2, enter the numbers 1 and 3 in the top two cells. This results in odd numbers being filled down the new column. Instead of doing steps 4 and 5, you would simply fill a like area with even cells (simply fill the first cell with 2 and the second one with 4). When you then sort in steps 6 through 9, the resulting table has the rows interleaved in the proper order.
If you are not adverse to using macros, inserting the blank rows is even easier. Simply select the rows you want to affect, and then execute this macro:
Sub AddBlankRows() Dim J As Integer Dim MySelection As Range If TypeName(Selection) <> "Range" Then Exit Sub Set MySelection = Selection Application.ScreenUpdating = False For J = MySelection.Rows.Count To 1 Step —1 MySelection.Rows(J).EntireRow.Insert Next J Application.ScreenUpdating = True End Sub
Of course, you should remember that if your only purpose in adding rows is to "space out" your information, you can achieve the same thing by simply increasing the height of each row in the table. You should only physically add blank rows if you need those rows in order to insert additional information in your data table.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3011) 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: Easily Adding Blank Rows.
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