Create and edit a spreadsheet

You can create a spreadsheet directly in Drive or from inside Sheets, then enter data and edit it using the toolbar menus and keyboard shortcuts.

Create a spreadsheet

From Drive

1. Open Drive and navigate to the folder where you want the spreadsheet.
2. Click New in the sidebar.
3. Choose New sheet from the menu.
4. Type a name for the spreadsheet and click Create.

The spreadsheet opens in Sheets straight away.

From inside Sheets

1. Click File in the top-left of the menu bar.
2. Click New sheet.
3. Type a name and click Create.

The editor layout

When a spreadsheet is open, the editor has three main areas:

• Menu bar: a row of menus (File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Data) at the top.
• Formula bar: below the menu bar. The box on the left shows the current cell address (for example, A1). The wider area to the right shows the cell's content or formula.
• Sheet tabs: a row of tabs along the bottom. Click a tab to switch between sheets. Click the + button at the left of the tab bar to add a new sheet tab.

Enter and edit data

Click a cell to select it. Type to enter data. Press Enter to confirm and move down, or Tab to confirm and move right. Press Escape to cancel without saving.

To edit a cell you have already filled in, double-click it, or select it and start typing to replace its contents. You can also click the formula bar to edit there.

To delete the contents of one or more cells, select them and press Backspace or Delete.

Select cells

Click a single cell to select it. To select a range, click and drag. To select a whole column or row, click its header letter or number.

You can select multiple separate ranges by holding Ctrl (Windows and Linux) or ⌘ (Mac) while clicking. To select every cell of the sheet, press Ctrl+A (Mac: ⌘A) or choose Edit → Select all.

Copy, cut, and paste

Use the standard keyboard shortcuts:

• Ctrl+C (Mac: ⌘C) to copy
• Ctrl+X (Mac: ⌘X) to cut
• Ctrl+V (Mac: ⌘V) to paste

You can also use Edit → Copy, Edit → Cut, and Edit → Paste from the menu bar. If your browser doesn't let a menu read the clipboard, Paste shows a notice that says to press Ctrl+V (Mac: ⌘V) instead.

A copy takes hidden rows and columns along, as in Excel. The one exception is a filter: a copy leaves out the rows a filter hides. A cut or a drag can't leave them behind, so over such rows it moves nothing and a notice says to clear the filter first. A copy of a merged cell that a filter partly hides shows a notice too. The rows and columns you paste over stay hidden or shown as they were.

When you paste in the same browser tab, the pasted cells bring their dropdowns, other data validation, conditional formatting, and links. They replace the ones on the cells they land on, so a copied cell without a link or a rule removes the destination's, and a rule can end up with a gap in it. A table pasted from another app removes the links of the cells it lands on. If you edit the copied cells before you paste, the paste brings them as they are now.

Copied cells paste into other apps as rows and columns, the same ones a paste in Sheets gets, for example into a text editor or a chart's Edit data grid.

Undo and redo

• Ctrl+Z (Mac: ⌘Z) undoes your last change.
• Ctrl+Shift+Z (Mac: ⇧⌘Z) redoes it.

Both are also available under Edit → Undo and Edit → Redo.

Once someone else edits the spreadsheet, you can no longer undo or redo:

• Your last insert or delete of rows or columns.
• Your last added, duplicated, deleted or renamed sheet.
• A paste that added rows or columns.
• Anything you did before one of these.

What you did after it still undoes. If someone else renames a sheet, you can no longer undo or redo anything you did before that. Your own edit in another tab or on another device counts too.

Restoring a version or importing a file that replaces the spreadsheet also clears what you can undo. When there is nothing left to undo for one of these reasons, pressing undo shows a notice: "This spreadsheet was replaced or edited by someone else, so this can't be undone anymore." Pressing redo says: "This spreadsheet was replaced or edited by someone else, so this can't be redone anymore." The notice stops once you make a new edit.

Format cells

The Format menu covers all formatting options:

• Text: bold (Ctrl+B), italic (Ctrl+I), underline (Ctrl+U), and strikethrough. On a Mac, press ⌘ in place of Ctrl.
• Number: choose a format such as currency, percentage, or date from the submenu.
• Alignment: left, center, or right horizontally; top, middle, or bottom vertically.
• Wrapping: overflow (default), wrap, or clip long text.
• Font size: pick from the list.
• Fill color and Borders: set a background color or draw borders around cells.
• Merge cells: combine a selection into one cell.
• Clear formatting: remove text styles, colors, alignment and borders from the selected cells. Values and number formats stay.

Quick buttons for the font, font size, Bold, Italic, Text color, Fill color, and horizontal alignment sit in the center of the menu bar. As the bar gets narrower, for example when a side panel is open, they fold away from the right, alignment first, until none are left. Everything they do stays in the Format menu.

Find and replace

Press Ctrl+F (Mac: ⌘F) to open the find panel, or Edit → Find and replace. A search box appears where you can search across all cells. Click Show replace to open the replace row.

Sheet tabs

Each spreadsheet can contain multiple sheets. To manage them:

• Click the + button at the left of the tab bar to add a sheet.
• Double-click a tab to rename it.
• Click the ⌄ arrow on a tab to open a menu with options to Rename, Duplicate, Change color, Hide, Move left, Move right, and Delete.
• Drag a tab to a different position to reorder sheets.

Save your work

Sheets saves your changes automatically. There is no Save button.