Select the cell or range and press Delete. Excel clears the values and formulas from every selected cell, including a non-adjacent selection made with Ctrl, and leaves the cells themselves in place.
Delete removes contents only. To wipe contents and formatting together, use Alt, H, E, A (Home → Clear → Clear All). To strip formatting but keep the values, use Alt, H, E, F (Clear Formats). Alt, H, E, M clears comments and notes, and Alt, H, E, L clears hyperlinks.
Backspace is not the same as Delete. It clears only the active cell, even when a range is selected, and leaves you in edit mode, so press Enter to confirm.
The thing that catches people out is leftover formatting. A cell you emptied with Delete keeps its number format, fill and conditional formatting, so the next number you type can appear as a date or a percentage. Use Clear All when you want a genuinely blank cell.
To remove the cells altogether and shift the neighbouring cells up or left, press Ctrl + – (minus) instead. Delete only empties them.
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To clear contents from a cell or a range of cells in Excel you need to use the “Delete” button on the keyboard. This key works the same even if you have selected one cell, multiple non-continuous cells, or a range of cells.
- Clear Content: Delete
- Clear All: Alt > H > E > A
- Clear Comments and Notes: Alt > H > E > M
- Clear Hyperlinks: Alt > H > E > L
Apart from that, you can also use the Backspace key. Even though backspace is not used for clearing the content, it works almost the same. When you select a cell and press the backspace it clears the content from the cell and edits it.
If you are using Excel for Mac, you can use the Delete key to clear content from you can use the keys Fn + Delete for this.