How to “backspace” cells in Word

Sarah King 80 Reputation points
2026-02-05T18:09:07.59+00:00

I’m sorry in advance if this is a bit confusing.

I’m using word 2016 btw. I had to add a row to add a few cells in a huge table I’ve been working on and what I had to add was less cells than a whole row so I want to be able to delete the cells so they move in a way similar to how when your just writing a paragraph in word and you delete something at the end of a line it shifts the first word in the next line to the line you deleted the word from (and adjusting all other words accordingly). I really hope this makes sense. I added photos of what I mean with how paragraphs shift thingsIMG_4772

IMG_4773

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows
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Suzanne S Barnhill 279.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2026-02-06T02:46:53.3033333+00:00

There's not really any way to do exactly what you want. Given this table:User's image

If you select cells 7 and 8, right click, and choose "Delete cells," you'll get this dialog:

User's image

If you choose "Shift cells left" (the default), you'll get this:

User's image

If you choose "Shift cells up," you'll get this:

User's image

Neither is what you want if I've understood you correctly. What you can do, if the table is not terribly complex, is to convert the table to text, remove the content you don't need, and then convert the text to a table with the same number of columns, which will bring content up from the next row.

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  1. WordWizzard 1,235 Reputation points
    2026-02-06T05:18:18.2266667+00:00

    I'm not sure what you mean, so I'm making a guess…

    Suppose you have a table that has text in the cells:User's image

    If you want to keep the text in cell 6 when deleting cell 6, you can first merge cells 5 and 6 to form one cell. Then your table and text will look like this.

    User's image

    Now, if you want to make the merged cell fall under only cell 2, you can select the entire cell,

    User's image

    and then drag the cell's right side border to the left. You will end up with this:

    User's image

    You can accomplish similar results by merging cells 4, 5 and 6, and dragging their border.

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