Other use cases might require you to delete any rows containing someone’s name, a location, or some other information to trim the excess data from your sheet.

How to Remove all Rows Containing Certain Data

1. Select all of your data, including the data you wish to remove.
2. Press Ctrl F to open the Find and Replace window.
3. Type the text that is contained in the row you wish to delete. For example if you need to delete rows with someone’s name, type that name in.
4. Click the Find All button.
   • This will show a list of all cells containing the data you searched for below the search box.
5. Click on one of the results that appear below the search box, then press Ctrl A.
   • All results should be highlighted now. Also, if you notice on your spreadsheet, each cell containing what you searched for will be selected.
6. Click the Close button on the Find and Replace window.
7. Press Ctrl – to open the Delete window.
8. Select the Entire Row option, and press the OK button.

All rows containing the data you wanted to remove should be gone now!

You can also remove an entire column of data that contains certain information in a similar manner. To remove the entire column, simply select the Entire Column option in the last step above.

As with any data modification, be sure to have a copy of your data saved elsewhere as a backup just in case you accidentally remove some important information. This will ensure that when trying to remove all rows containing certain data, you do so in the safest possible way.

Remove Certain Rows Containing Certain Data with VBA

In the developer tab, go to Visual Basic as normal and create a module like the one below. Change and amend the code to your needs and then simply run the module on your sheet.

 Sub Delete_All_Rows_IF_Cell_Contains_Certain_String_Text()
    Dim lRow As Long
    Dim iCntr As Long
    lRow = 1000
    For iCntr = lRow To 1 Step -1
        If Cells(iCntr, 3).Value = "Certain data to delete here" Then
            Rows(iCntr).Delete
        End If
    Next
    End 

Number “3” in the ‘If Cells (iCntr, 3).Value represents the third column (C)
lRow = 1000 means it will check the first 1000 rows.

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How to type same data in multiple cells

1. Select all of the cells that need to contain the same data. If the cells are consecutive you can click and drag to highlight them all, or you can hold down the CTRL button and click each individual cell.
2. With all of the cells still highlighted, type the data you need repeated in all the cells in the last cell you selected.
3. After you type the data press CTRL and the Enter button. Your data should now be in all of the cells you selected.

If you have multiple worksheets that need the same data in the same cells in each worksheet, you can automate this process even further by selecting each worksheet tab before you start selecting the cells in step #1 above. You can select multiple non-consecutive worksheet tabs by holding down CTRL and clicking on each tab, or if the tabs are consecutive you can click the first tab, hold down Shift, and then click the last tab. All tabs in between should also be highlighted. To deselect the tabs, click any other tab that is not the tab for the current  worksheet you are looking at.

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Click through to see our top 10 Excel tips.

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Let’s say you run a restaurant, and you want to see what menu items sell the best on any given day of the week. Looking at just one week’s worth of data doesn’t give you a good picture since you could have had a large party come in on a usually slow day, and throw off your statistics.

Instead, create a spreadsheet with a separate tab for each week you want to track, plus a total tab.

Next, click the Week 1 tab, hold down the Shift key and click the Total tab then release the Shift key. This selects all the tabs in your workbook, and allows you to type information into one sheet and have it show up in all the worksheets in your file.

On the Week 1 tab, click in cell A1 and enter Menu Item, then enter Monday through Sunday in cells B1 through H1. In cells A2 through A7, enter some menu items. I’m using Fish, Steak, Pork, Pasta, Alcohol, and Total. You can enter whatever you want here and go down as far as you need to.

If you want to apply any formatting to all the cells or add total formulas, go ahead and do that now while all the worksheets are still selected.

Using Excel 3D Sum Formula

Now that all the consistent formatting has been done, click on any of the other worksheets in your workbook in order to deselect all the others.

Enter in some sales data for each of the weeks.

Now that all the weeks are populated, you can start using the 3D sum formula in order to get the Total tab populated.

To do this, click on the Total tab, and select cell B2. Enter the following equation:

=SUM(Week1:Week6!B2)

This formula now adds up everything in cell B2 between Week 1 and Week 6. You can copy and paste that formula into the remaining cells to get the totals for all the other menu items and days.

More Than Just 3D Sum Formula?

Let’s say you wanted to something else with the data in this workbook. Maybe you didn’t want to add the data to get a total, but maybe you wanted to get an average, or find the minimum (or maximum) amount for each menu item on a given day.

You can use any of the following functions in a 3D formula:

• SUM
• AVERAGE
• AVERAGEA
• COUNT
• COUNTA
• MAX
• MAXA
• MIN
• MINA
• PRODUCT
• STDEV
• STDEVA
• STDEVP
• STDEVPA
• VAR
• VARA
• VARP
• VARPA

To use any of these functions in a 3D formula, click the cell you want to enter it in, and type

=[Name of Function](

Click the tab of the first worksheet in your reference (in the previous example, Week 1).

Hold down the Shift key, and click the last worksheet in the reference (in the previous example, Week 6).

Click the cell or range of cells to be referenced. Complete the formula with any additional arguments that are required, and then press Enter.

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It’s actually pretty easy to protect your worksheet from people who might want to get creative with your hard work.

Here’s the steps to lock all cells in your workbook, except for the few individual cells you want people to input information to.

1. Click the box to the left of column A (in between column A and row 1). This will select all cells.
2. Right click the same box – select “Format Cells” then click the “Protection” tab.
3. Make sure the “Locked” check box is checked.
4. Click “OK” These first few steps just made sure that all cells are locked. See steps 5-6 for unlocking individual cells.
5. Right click just the cell(s) you wish to have editable by the end user (i.e. unlocked).
6. Select “Format Cells” then click the “Protection” tab. Then un-check the “Locked” box. This will “unlock” the cells that you want the end user to be able to edit.
7. In newer versions of Excel (2007+), click the “Review” tab, then click “Protect Sheet” under the “Changes” group.
   In older versions of Excel (97-2003), this is found under the “Tools” menu, then “Protection”.
8. If you wish, enter a password in the prompt to be used to un-protect the sheet.
   Note: If no password is entered, anyone can repeat step #7 to un-protect the sheet.
9. Under “Allow all users of this worksheet to:” un-check all boxes except for “Select unlocked cells” then click OK.

Users will now only be able to select and input into the cells that were unlocked in step #6. They won’t be able to insert or delete columns or rows, add comments, or any of the other actions listed in the Protect Sheet window.

It might also be a good idea to format your worksheet in such a way that the end user will know which cells can be (or should be) edited. For example, a different cell background or border color might be a good visual cue to someone that a cell is editable. Alternatively, you could type some generic text (i.e. “First Name”, “Last Name”, “Address”, etc.) into the cells, so  the users will know what is expected of them in the cells.

Now what happens if you enter a password, want to go back and edit your worksheet, but forget what the password was? Well in most cases, you are stuck. You won’t be able to edit anything other than the unlocked cells. That is, of course, unless you know how to crack the password.

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What does the Excel Too Many Different Cell Formats error mean?

The reason why you get the too many different cell formats error is because an Excel file can only have approximately 4,000 different combinations of cell formats.  At first this might seem like a lot, but think about all the unique formatting characteristics that can be applied to a cell.

• Fonts: including the font, font size, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, superscript, subscript, color, etc.
• Borders: including which side of the cell has a border (top, left, right, or bottom), border color, border thickness (or weight), etc.
• Fills: including fill color, and patterns.
• Number formatting: such as General, Number, Currency, Accounting, Date, Time, Percentage, Fraction, Scientific, Text, Special, or Custom.  Not to mention the number of decimal places shown.
• Alignment: Top, bottom, left, right, centered, centered across selection, indented, orientation degrees, wrapped text, shrink to fit, merged cells, text direction, etc.

Any unique combination of the above cell formats counts towards the 4,000 limit that will end up showing the too many different cell formats error. However, if several cells share exactly the same formatting, it only counts as one towards the 4,000 limit.

For example, assuming that all other formats are the same, a 3×3 group of cells “boxed” with a border going around it would have nine different cell formats, considering that no cell in the group would share the same side border formatting (see below).

Too Many Different Cell Formats Fix

To fix the too many different cell formats in excel, simplify the formats of the cells in your file, by using some of the suggestions below:

• Clear all spreadsheet formatting
• Use a standardized font
• Clear cell fill colors
• Clear all other cell formatting such as any borders or lines
• Use consistent number formats where possible

To stop the Too many different cell formats issue in Excel

To stop the too many different cell formats in excel happening in the first place try to stick to some formatting guidelines – some of the suggestions below:

• Use only one or two standard fonts.  For example, if you want your headings to be bold, and the data to be in a regular style, do so consistently.
• Use consistent borders in your worksheets.  Maybe just box in headings and your data points to make it easier for your files users to read.
• Clear out unnecessary fill colors and patterns.
• Make sure your numbers are consistently presented (i.e. percentages are shown as such with the same number of decimal points, dollars are shown in the currency, or accounting format, etc.).
• If all else fails, reset all cell formatting to fix the too many different cell formats error message

Also, consider clearing the formats of blank cells.  To do this, click Find & Select in the Editing Group on the Home tab, then Go To Special. Select Blanks from the list and then click OK.

This will highlight all cells that do not contain data.  Next, click Clear in the Editing Group on the Home tab, then Clear Formats.  This will clear all the blank cells of any formatting that have been applied to them.  Be careful however, as this could have unintended consequences if you’ve filled the cells in a row or column to act as a “border” between sections in your worksheet, or if you’ve used the Center Across Selection formatting.

After done simplifying your cell formats across your entire file, save, close, and then re-open before adding any new cell formats.

Another tool you can use to help with cell formatting is this add-on, which works for Excel 2003, Excel 2007, Excel 2010, and Excel 2013. Alternatively accounting and audit teams find add-ins such as this extremely useful for standardizing their accounting format in excel.

Have you struggled with the Excel too many different cell formats pop-up? What have you done to fix this formatting nightmare? Hopefully this quick guide has helped explain what too many cell formats means in excel and ways for you to avoid running into this issue in the future.

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