Clear Cell Contents Shortcut in Google Sheets

You’ve got a cell, a range, or a whole column of values you want to wipe. But you want to keep the formatting underneath, the colors, the borders, the number format.

This shortcut clears the values and leaves the formatting alone. One key on both platforms.

It also has a sibling shortcut for the opposite job: wipe the formatting and keep the values. That one’s covered below too.

Clear Cell Contents Keyboard Shortcut in Google Sheets

Clear Cell Contents Keyboard Shortcut (Windows Windows)

Delete

Clear Cell Contents Keyboard Shortcut (Mac Mac)

Delete (or Fn + Delete on MacBooks without a forward-delete key)

What this shortcut does

Press Delete with one or more cells selected and the values inside those cells go away. The font, fill color, borders, and number format stay exactly as they were.

That’s the key difference from deleting an entire row or column. Row/column deletion removes the cells themselves and shifts everything around. This shortcut only clears what’s inside.

It’s also different from clearing formatting. Clearing formatting wipes the visual styling and keeps the values. The two jobs use different shortcuts.

How to use it (step by step)

  1. Click a cell, or click and drag to select a range.
  2. Press the shortcut.
  3. The values disappear. Formatting stays.

Backspace does the same thing on a selected range. The difference shows up when you’re inside a single cell editing text, where Backspace deletes the character to the left and Delete deletes the character to the right.

For a whole column, click the column letter at the top to select the entire column, then press the shortcut. Same idea for a row.

Alternative method (menu / mouse)

If a key doesn’t feel right or you want to be explicit, the menu paths are:

  • Clear values: right-click the selection and pick Delete values.
  • Clear formatting only: Format menu, then Clear formatting. The keyboard shortcut for that is Ctrl + \ on Windows and ⌘ + \ on Mac.
  • Clear everything (values + formatting): Edit menu, then Delete, then choose Values or use the right-click options.

Use Clear formatting when you’ve inherited a sheet covered in colors and bold text and you just want the raw numbers back.

Things to watch for

  • Mac Delete is actually Backspace. On MacBooks without a numeric keypad, the key labeled “delete” is what Windows calls Backspace. To get true forward-delete behavior, press Fn+Delete. For wiping a selected range, plain Delete works fine since direction doesn’t matter when nothing is being typed.
  • Delete row is a different shortcut. Removing the entire row (and shifting rows up) uses a different combo. This shortcut only clears the contents of the cells you’ve selected.
  • Formulas, not just values. If the cell holds a formula, Delete removes the formula too. There’s no separate “clear formula keep result” shortcut.
  • Won’t touch protected cells. If the range includes protected cells, Sheets blocks the clear and shows a warning. Adjust the protection settings or work around the locked cells.
  • Undo always saves you. If you cleared the wrong range, Ctrl+Z (or ⌘+Z) brings everything back. The clear isn’t permanent until you move on.

Google Sheets keyboard shortcuts

Related Google Sheets shortcuts: