How to Insert Multiple Rows in Google Sheets (with Useful Shortcut)

Sumit

Watch Video – How to Insert Multiple Rows in Google Sheets

In case you prefer reading a tutorial over watching a video, below is a written tutorial for you.

When working with data in Google Sheets, you’ll often have a need to insert one of the multiple rows in between the existing rows (or at the top or bottom of the dataset).

Inserting rows in Google Sheets is pretty straightforward and only takes a couple of clicks.

But in case you want to insert rows multiple times in different places, even a few clicks can seem a lot. That where you can also used a cool shortcut.

Let’s dive in and see how to insert multiple rows in Google Sheets.

Table of Contents

Insert a Single Row (Above or Below)

If you only want to insert one row above or below a specific row, you can use the in-built feature made to do just this.

Using the Insert Tab

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below and you want to insert a row above row #4.

Below are the steps to insert a row above a specific row in Google Sheets:

Select the row by clicking on the row header in the left (or any cell in the dataset)
Click the Insert tab
Click on the ‘Row above’ option

The above steps would insert one blank row above the fourth row as shown below.

In case you want to insert a row below the selected row, choose the ‘Row below’ option in the ‘Insert’ menu drop-down.

Using the Right-click menu

You can also use the right-click method to quickly insert a single row or even multiple rows above or below the selected row.

Below are the steps to insert a row above the selected row using the right-click method:

Select the row by clicking on the row header in the left (or any cell in the dataset)
Right-click on the selection
Click on the ‘Insert 1 above’ option

The above steps would insert one row above the fourth row as shown below.

You can also use the same method to insert a row below the selected row. Just choose the ‘Row Below’ option in the third step.

Note: When you select the row header (the number at the extreme left of the row) and right-click, it shows you the option to insert a row above or below the selected row. But when you select a cell in the dataset and use right-click, it will only show you the option to insert the row above.

Insert a Multiple Row in Google Sheets (Above or Below)

Just like we have inserted a single row above and below the selected row, you can also insert multiple rows. The steps remain exactly the same with just one minor change.

Using the Insert Tab

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below and you want to insert three rows above row #4.

Below are the steps to insert multiple rows above a specific row in Google Sheets:

Select three rows starting from row #4 by selecting the row header in the left (or three cells in any row – starting from row #4)
Click the Insert tab
Click on the ‘3 Rows above’ option

The above steps would insert three blank rows above the selected rows (as shown below).

Note: This would always insert as many rows as you as selected. If you select five rows, it will insert five blank rows above the selected rows.

You can also use the same method to insert multiple rows below the selected rows. Just choose the ‘3 Rows Below’ option in the third step.

Note: Unfortunately, at the time of writing this article, there is no way to selected non-contiguous rows and insert rows above each selected row. For example, if you select row # 5 and 8, and then try and insert one row above both these selected rows, you won’t be able to do this. If you click on the Insert option, in this case, you will see that it’s faded out and not available. However, this can be sped up by using a keyboard shortcut (covered later in this tutorial).

Using the Right-Click Menu

Right-click menu is another way to insert multiple rows in Google Sheets.

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below and you want to insert three rows above row #4.

Below are the steps to insert multiple rows above the selected rows using the right-click method:

Select three rows starting from row #4 by selecting the row header in the left (or three cells in any row – starting from row #4)
Right-click on the selected row headers (or cells, in case you have selected cells)
Click on the ‘Insert 3 above’ option

You can also use the same method to insert multiple rows below the selected rows. Just choose the ‘3 Rows Below’ option in the third step.

Using the Keyboard Shortcut (F4)

In case you want to insert multiple rows which are not contiguous. For example, you want to insert rows above row #3, 5 and 8. Since these rows are not one after the other, you can do this at one go.

One of your options is to insert each row one-by-one by following one of the methods covered earlier.

And then there is another way to use a keyboard shortcut F4. While this shortcut will not do this all at once, it does speed up the process.

Below are the steps to insert multiple rows in Google Sheets (above row # 3, 5, and 8) which are not contiguous:

Select the row by clicking on the row header of row #3 (or any cell in the dataset)
Click the Insert tab
Click on the ‘Row above’ option. This will insert one row above row #3
Select any cell in row #5
Hit the F4 key
Select any cell in row #8
Hit the F4 key

The F4 key simply repeats your last action, and in this case, since the last action was to insert a row above the selected row, it simply repeats that.

While it may seem like too many steps, when you actually do this in Google Sheets, this process is pretty fast.

Note: Remember that F4 simply repeats the last action you did in Google Sheets. So if you do something while in the process of inserting rows (such as copy-paste or anything else), using F4 after that will repeat that action and not insert the row. You will now have to insert a row using tab or right-click method and then you can start using F4 again.

You may also like the following Google Sheets tutorials: