Buzz
Today, Mytour will guide you through the process of eliminating duplicate data in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
Steps
Remove Duplicate Data
Double-click the Excel document. The spreadsheet will open in Excel.
- You can also open an existing document from the "Recent" section under the Open tab.
Select the data group. Click on the top item of the data, hold down the ⇧ Shift key, and then click on the last item.
- To select multiple columns, click on the top-left item and then click on the bottom-right item while holding the ⇧ Shift key.
Click on the Data tab located on the left side of the green ribbon at the top of the Excel window.
Click on Remove Duplicates. This option is found in the "Data Tools" section of the Data toolbar near the top of the Excel window. A pop-up window will appear, allowing you to select or deselect columns.
Ensure that each column you want to modify is selected. You will see various column names (such as "Column A", "Column B") next to checkboxes; click on the checkbox to deselect any columns you don't need.
- By default, all columns adjacent to your selection will be listed and pre-checked in this list.
- You can click Select All to choose every column in the list.
Click OK. All duplicate data will be removed from the Excel spreadsheet.
- If no duplicates are reported but you are certain they exist, try selecting one column at a time.
Highlight Duplicate Data
Double-click the Excel document. The spreadsheet will open in Excel, allowing you to identify cells with identical values using the Conditional Formatting feature. This method is ideal if you only need to locate duplicates without removing them by default.
- You can also open an existing document from the "Recent" section under the Open tab.
Click on the top-left cell of the data group to select it.
- Do not include headers (e.g., "Date", "Time", etc.) in the selection.
- If selecting a single row, click on the leftmost header of the row.
- If selecting a single column, click on the top header of the column.
Hold down the ⇧ Shift key and click on the bottom-right cell. This action will select all data between the top-left and bottom-right corners of the data group.
- If selecting a single row, click on the rightmost cell containing data.
- If selecting a single column, click on the bottom cell containing data.
Click on Conditional Formatting. This option is located in the "Styles" section of the Home tab. A dropdown menu will appear.
- You may need to click on the Home tab at the top of the Excel window first to find this option.
Select Highlight Cells Rules. A new window will pop up.
Click on Duplicate Values at the bottom of the dropdown menu. All duplicate values within the selected range will be highlighted.
