Is there a way to do this without using the menu?
I have seen references to ctrl + space and ctrl + +, but this no longer works (zooms in and out in Google Chrome)
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Sign up to join this communityWhile it's not directly possible in the current version with its own keystroke, there is another very simple way to accomplish this.
First, be located in the row on which you want to insert a row above or below.
Then do the following (keys are on Mac, so translate as necessary for your OS):
I guess this way may actually be one less keystroke than how it was done before, so that's a win right there!
Alternatively, you can also just use your cursor keys (to me this is easier, even if it's more keystrokes):
Hope this helps!
⌘
+Option
+Shift
+=
(three modifiers and the equals key) which gives you r
for row, c
for column, d
for insert and shift down, i
for insert and shift right. Also works when you have the menu bar hidden (ctrl-opt-i doesn't work in that case)
Apr 13, 2018 at 18:47
Row above
or Row below
menu option appears. When the Insert
menu is opened the option is automatically selected by the mouse, so you can hit directly the Enter
key. Tested on Windows 10 + Chrome.
Chrome (Windows, Linux):
ALT+I, then R
IE & Firefox (Windows, Linux):
ALT+SHIFT+I, then R
Mac:
CTRL+OPTION+I, then R
This will add a row above.
Instead of R you can use...
Ctrl + Shift + =
on Windows.
Feb 2, 2022 at 14:01
Discovered an easy shortcut for Mac. First, select the whole row. CMD-OPTION+ to insert a row above. CMD-OPTION- to delete the selected row.
For Windows laptop users, the shortcut is to highlight the whole row by pressing Shift+Space (or highlight the whole column by Ctrl+Tab) and press the context-menu key (which is usually located next to the Ctrl key) on your keyboard and then press "Insert 1 Below" / "Insert 1 Above" (or "Insert 1 Left" / "Insert 1 Right" for inserting a column).
Another option would be to use Alt+/ to open the "Search the menus" search box and type "bel" or "ab" (to highlight the proper option) and hit Enter.
The "Search the menus" method has the advantage of being universal - it's easy to use it for many other things without memorizing the specific shortcuts. Plus it works also on Google Docs for text documents.
Disclaimer: Tested in Chrome on Windows only.
I think different to all or most suggestions so far. Google Sheets Keyboard Shortcuts (accessible from Help > Keyboard shortcuts, or with Ctrl+/), shows me (Windows):
As a Firefox user for me the shorter versions (without Alt) are greyed out since reserved for zooming the screen.
I can confirm that selecting a row and then Ctrl+Alt+Shift+= does insert a blank row at the selected location and shift what was in that row, and all further below, down.
For Macintosh users the Keyboard short cut (at the same link) shows as:
And for Chrome
Depending on OS, Alt+Shift+i (Windows), Ctrl+Option+i (Mac) or Alt+i (Chrome) will open the Insert Menu of more than a dozen options, of which the first is Row above
, which may be selected and actioned with just R
.
Another solution is to use the Automator utility. I thought it would be easy to just have a keyboard shortcut to fire the Google Sheets menu item "insert new rows". Here's how you do it:
Setting up the Automator service
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Google Chrome" to activate
tell application "System Events"
repeat 5 times
keystroke "i" using {control down, option down}
keystroke "R"
key code 36
end repeat
end tell
return input
end run
Setting up the keyboard shortcut
Now, when you hit your shortcut, your insert rows script will run.
Customization
repeat 5 times
to another number.keystroke "R"
to keystroke "B"
.Note that on October 26, 2021, Google announced Enhanced menus in Google Sheets and by doing so, also changed a lot of of keyboard commands, including this one.
Chrome (Windows, Linux):
ALT+I, then R, then R/B → insert row above/below
IE & Firefox (Windows, Linux):
ALT+SHIFT+I, then R, then R/B → insert row above/below
Mac:
CTRL+OPTION+I, then R, then R/B → insert row above/below
According to this documentation found in the Insert or delete rows or columns section:
Insert row above
Insert row below
I haven't found any good keyboard shortcuts. The quickest way I can see to insert multiple rows/columns is to manually insert a row/column a couple times, then highlight all new blank rows, hit Ctrl+C, then right click again. Now you have the option to insert multiple new rows.
On PC, you can add a row above using a single keystroke (eg. F7) using autohotkey (it simply send the keystroke ctrl+i then r):
;--- active the code on all google sheet opened
SetTitleMatchMode, Regex
#If WinActive("Google Sheets ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1")
;---It use F7, but you could use the shortcuts of your choice.
;--- You could use if needed: Alt(!) CTRL(^) shift(+) win(#)
F7::
send +!i
sleep 100
send r
return
#IfWinActive ; reset winactive
There are usually a bunch of empty rows at the bottom of the sheet. Select however many you need and drag them where you need.
On Windows:
Press Alt+b+b This inserts a row below.
Press Alt+b+a This inserts a row above.
Just do this (I used the lower case letter i
because you couldn't tell if it was an L or not).
Alt+i+b
More precisely, select a row:
Hold Alt then press i (it brings up the insert menu) then let go and press the letter B.
It will insert a row below the selected row. You will have to hold alt, press i, then let go and press B again for every new row but it works quickly.