The sheet owner, and collaborators with Admin or Editor access to the sheet, can add, edit, and clear cell content to control the data displayed in it.
Add Information to a Cell
- Click on a cell and start typing to enter information. You can also copy and paste information into cells.
- Typing into a cell with existing data will overwrite it. The previous entry will always be available if you right-click on the cell (Mac users can [Ctrl] + click) and select View History.
- The column type determines the type of data you can enter into the cell. For example, if a column is a date type, you can click on a cell and select a date from a calendar. If the column is a drop-down list type, you can click on a cell to select an option from a list.
TIP: You can also type text freely into any column type except read-only system columns.
- You can have up to 4,000 characters in each cell.
Edit a Cell
You can edit the information in a cell directly or by viewing its contents in a form:
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To open a cell for editing, double-click it or press [F2].
TIP: If you single click on the cell, the existing value will be overwritten when you begin typing. -
To change the formatting of a cell, click it, and then click the desired formatting option from the left toolbar. For more information about formatting cells, see Formatting Options.
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To edit the contents of a cell in a form, click the drop-down arrow next to a row's number and select Edit to open the form.
NOTE: You must have Editor permissions or higher to see the Edit command. If you are shared to a sheet with Viewer permissions, you'll see the View Detail command. Select View Detail to view the details of the row in a form.
Clear Cell Content
Select one or more cells and press Delete or Backspace to clear the current contents.
You can also right-click a cell and select Clear Contents.
Clear Row Content
To clear the content of an entire row:
- Click the row number to the left of the row to highlight it.
- Press Delete or Backspace.
This won't delete the row itself, but it will clear all content from the cells in the row.
Clear Column Content
- Click the column header at the top to highlight it.
- Press Delete or Backspace.
This won't delete the column itself, but will clear all content from its cells.