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How to Put Data in Excel

Cody Schneider•

Getting your information into Excel is the first step toward creating budgets, tracking lists, or building detailed reports. This guide will walk you through the most common ways to input data, from straightforward typing to effortlessly importing large files, so you can choose the best method for any situation.

Manually Entering Data in Excel

The most fundamental way to get data into Excel is by typing it directly into the cells. While it seems simple, a few tricks can make the process much faster and more accurate, especially when you're dealing with more than a few lines of information.

The Basics of Cell Entry

To start, simply click on any cell and begin typing. You'll see your text appear in the cell and in the formula bar above the worksheet. Here are the key keyboard shortcuts to navigate as you go:

  • Enter: Moves the active cell down one row.

  • Tab: Moves the active cell one column to the right.

  • Shift + Enter: Moves the active cell up one row.

  • Shift + Tab: Moves the active cell one column to the left.

For example, if you're creating a simple weekly expense tracker, you might type "Date" in cell A1, press Tab, type "Category" in B1, press Tab again, type "Amount" in C1, and then press Enter to move down to A2, ready to start entering your first expense.

Speeding Up Manual Entry with the Fill Handle

Constantly typing repetitive information is tedious. Excel's Fill Handle is a small-but-mighty feature that saves you a ton of time. It’s the little green square at the bottom-right corner of a selected cell or range.

Here’s how you can use it:

  • Creating Number Sequences: Type '1' in a cell, then '2' in the cell below it. Select both cells. Now, click and drag the fill handle down. Excel will recognize the pattern and continue the sequence: 3, 4, 5, and so on.

  • Copying Values: If you just have one value (like a product name or a status like "Complete"), you can select the cell and drag the fill handle to quickly copy that value down a column or across a row.

  • Working with Dates and Times: Excel is clever with dates. Type a date, like "1/1/2024", into a cell. Drag the fill handle down, and Excel will automatically fill in the subsequent dates: 1/2/2024, 1/3/2024, etc. It also recognizes months ("January", "February") and days of the week ("Monday", "Tuesday").

Imagine setting up that expense tracker for a full month. Rather than typing out 30 different dates, you just type the first one and use the fill handle to generate the rest in seconds.

Copying and Pasting Data into Your Worksheet

Often, the data you need already exists somewhere else - in another spreadsheet, on a website, or in a document. Copying and pasting is the quickest way to bring it into Excel. But Excel’s "Paste Special" feature gives you much more control than a standard paste.

The Standard Copy and Paste

The classic copy (Ctrl + C) and paste (Ctrl + V) works just as you’d expect. Select the data from the source, copy it, click on a destination cell in Excel, and paste. Excel will try to bring over both the values and the original formatting (like bold text, cell colors, and fonts).

This works well for moving data between Excel sheets but can sometimes lead to messy formatting when pasting from web pages or other applications.

Mastering Paste Special for More Control

After copying data, right-click on your destination cell and look for the "Paste Special" menu (or use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + V). This opens up a dialog box with powerful options that give you precise control over what gets pasted.

Paste Values (The Most Useful Option)

Have you ever copied the result of a formula, only to paste a "#REF!" error? That's because you pasted the formula itself, not the result. The "Values" option fixes this. It pastes only the raw text or number, stripping away any formulas and source formatting. This is incredibly useful when:

  • You want to copy data from a webpage without bringing over all the strange fonts, colors, and links.

  • You need to "lock in" the results of a calculation, converting a formula into its static value.

  • Your data is formatted as numbers but pasted as text, causing calculation errors. Pasting as values can help fix this.

Transpose Data

The "Transpose" option lets you flip data from columns to rows, or vice versa. Imagine you have a list of sales months going down in Column A and regions going across in Row 1. If you decide you'd rather have the regions listed down the side and the months across the top, "Transpose" is what you need.

Simply copy your data range, right-click a new location, go to "Paste Special," and check the "Transpose" box. Excel will pivot the entire table for you instantly.

Importing Data from External Sources

For larger datasets stored in separate files, manually typing or pasting is impractical. Excel’s built-in "Get & Transform Data" (powered by Power Query) tools let you pull in data directly from various sources, making the process easily repeatable.

You’ll find these tools on the Data tab of the ribbon.

Importing from a CSV or Text File

Comma-Separated Values (CSV) is a standard format for exporting data from apps and databases. It’s essentially a plain text file where columns are separated by a delimiter, usually a comma.

To import a CSV file:

  1. Go to the Data tab.

  2. Click From Text/CSV.

  3. Navigate to your file and click Import.

  4. A preview window will appear. Excel will automatically detect the file origin and the delimiter (like a comma or a tab) splitting your data into columns. You can adjust these if Excel gets it wrong.

  5. You then have two main options:

    • Load: This will directly load the data into a new worksheet as a formatted Excel Table.

    • Transform Data: This opens the Power Query Editor, a powerful tool that lets you clean and reshape your data before it even lands in your sheet. You can remove columns, filter rows, change data types, and much more.

Importing from Another Excel Workbook

If you need to pull data from another Excel file without manually opening it and copy-pasting, this is the way to go. It creates a connection that can be refreshed, so if the source file is updated, your current workbook can pull in the latest changes with a simple click.

  1. Navigate to Data > Get Data > From File > From Excel Workbook.

  2. Select the Excel file you want to connect to.

  3. The Navigator window opens, showing you all the sheets and any formatted Tables within that workbook.

  4. Select the sheet or table you need and click Load.

This is perfect for consolidating data from multiple team members' reports into a single master dashboard.

Importing from a Website

You can even pull data directly from a webpage, as long as the data is structured in an HTML table. This is fantastic for grabbing public data like financial stock prices, historical weather data, or sports statistics.

  1. Go to the Data tab and click From Web.

  2. Paste the URL of the webpage containing the data and click OK.

  3. Excel's Navigator will scan the page and present a list of all the tables it found.

  4. Click on each table in the list to preview it. Once you find the one you want, select it and click Load.

The data will be imported into your sheet, and you can refresh the connection later to get the latest version from the website.

Best Practices for Organizing Your Excel Data

How you structure your data from the start makes a huge difference later. Following a few simple rules will save you countless headaches when it comes time to sort, filter, or analyze it.

Format Your Data as a Table

As soon as you have your raw data in a grid, select it and press Ctrl + T (or go to Insert > Table). This simple action converts your range into a proper Excel Table, which comes with amazing benefits:

  • Automatic Formatting: Tables come with styled rows and easy-to-read formatting.

  • Easy Sorting and Filtering: Filter and sort buttons are added to your headers automatically.

  • Auto-Expansion: When you add a new row or column, the table's range expands automatically, ensuring your formulas and charts include the new data.

  • Clear Formulas: Formulas that reference table data use structured, readable names (like =SUM(Sales[Amount])) instead of confusing cell references (like =SUM(C2:C100)).

Maintain "Tidy" Data Structure

"Tidy data" is a concept where your data is organized for analysis. The rules are simple but powerful:

  • Each variable gets its own column: Don't cram "City, State" into one column. Have a separate "City" column and a "State" column.

  • Each observation gets its own row: Each row should represent a single record - one sale, one customer, one transaction.

  • No empty rows or columns: Keep your dataset as a single, contiguous block. Blank rows can break formulas and stop filters from working correctly.

  • Avoid merged cells: Merged cells look nice for titles but are disastrous for sorting, filtering, and writing formulas. Keep your column headers simple and in a single row.

Use Data Validation

To minimize data entry errors, use Data Validation (found on the Data tab). This feature lets you control what can be entered into a cell. For example, you can:

  • Create a dropdown list of options (e.g., "Pending," "In Progress," "Completed") so users have to choose from a preset list.

  • Restrict entries to a whole number, a date within a specific range, or text of a certain length.

This ensures a higher level of consistency and accuracy in your final dataset.

Final Thoughts

Whether you're typing in a few numbers for a personal budget, pasting a list from a website, or importing thousands of rows from an external file, knowing how to efficiently get data into spreadsheet tools like Excel is a critical skill. By choosing the right method - and organizing your data properly from the start - you create a reliable foundation for all your future analysis and reporting.

Of course, getting data into spreadsheets is often just the beginning of a long, manual reporting chore. Once the data is in, we see many teams spend hours recreating the same charts and dashboards week after week. At Graphed, we’ve created a way to connect directly to your most important data sources, including your synced Google Sheets, and create live, interactive dashboards just by asking in plain English. This eliminates the repetitive 'spreadsheet wrangling' and helps you get straight to the insights.