Convert Rows of Cells to Columns or Columns to Rows

Have you ever had a column of text that you wanted to move into a row? Perhaps, for instance, you'd like to use the text as column labels within a spreadsheet? Or maybe you have a row of data that you want to convert to a column.

It would be tedious to move the data manually, one item at a time. Instead, you can use the Paste Special command to transpose a column of data to a row of data, or convert a row to a column..

Transpose a column of data...

...into a row of data.

Follow these steps to transpose a row of data into a column of data, or vice versa:

• Make sure you have an empty "paste" area where the transposed data will be copied.
• Select the cells that you want to switch.
• Choose the Copy command from the Edit menu.
• Select the cell in the upper-left corner of the paste area. The paste area must be outside the copy area. Any existing data within the paste area will be overwritten.
• From the Edit menu, choose Paste Special.
• Select the Transpose check box.

Data from the top row of the copy area now appears in the left column of the paste area, or data from the left column appears in the top row.

For more information on options in the Paste Special dialog box, click the ? in the upper-right corner of the dialog box, and then click the option you want to learn more about.