How to delete MS Word table cell contents but not cells

Question

I am running MS Word 2007. Is it possible to delete the contents of a table without deleting the actual cells? I've tried highlighting a bunch of cells and hitting the Backspace button but with this method the cells get deleted along with their contents.

Answer 1

The Backspace can be used to delete the highlighted table cells, whereas the Delete key which is usually found in the row above it will clear the contents of the highlighted cells.

Answer 2

Using the "delete" key instead of "backspace" should do it. On a PC, anyway.

If you're on a Mac, and therefore don't have a real "delete" key (the "delete" key on the Mac's keyboard is functionally equivalent to a "backspace" key on a PC), you can do "fn + delete" to accomplish the desired effect.

Answer 3

Mark the cells, then Fn+Backspace. Only backspace deletes the entire table. Fn+Backspace clears content.

Answer 4

1. Select Cell
2. Hold Shift and Press Left
3. Press Delete or Backspace

Shift+Left should shrink the selection so that it selects just the cell contents and not the entire cell itself.

Answer 5

Highlight the cells you want to clear and select "Find and Replace", ensure Use Wildcard option is ticked. Enter ? in the find section and leave replace section blank, select replace all.

Answer 6

After you clear the contents of the table cells, the style formatting may still be present. Depending on the style for the table cell, this may result content such as outline numbering (e.g., "1.", "2.", "A.", "B.", "I", "II", etc.) still being displayed in the table cell, making it appear that the table cells are not empty.

To clear the style, select the table cells to clear, open the styles expand styles button on ribbon window from the ribbon, and click "Clear All" clear all pick on styles list.

Answer 7

You can always use Range("A:A").ClearContents heres an example

    # Split long col into 7 equal col
Sub SplitIntoCellsPerColumn()
Range("B2:H1894").ClearContents
  Dim X As Long, LastRow As Long, vArrIn As Variant, vArrOut As Variant
  LastRow = Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
  numofrows = LastRow / 7
  numofrows_rundup = Round_Up(numofrows)
  vArrIn = Range("A1:A" & LastRow)
  ReDim vArrOut(1 To numofrows_rundup, 1 To Int(LastRow / numofrows_rundup) + 1)
  For X = 0 To LastRow - 1
    vArrOut(1 + (X Mod numofrows_rundup), 1 + Int(X / numofrows_rundup)) = vArrIn(X + 1, 1)
  Next
  Range("B2").Resize(numofrows_rundup, UBound(vArrOut, 2)) = vArrOut

  Range("A:A").ClearContents

End Sub


Function Round_Up(ByVal d As Double) As Integer
    Dim result As Integer
    result = Math.Round(d)
    If result >= d Then
        Round_Up = result
    Else
        Round_Up = result + 1
    End If
End Function