Insert Columns

Location on ribbon: Tab DVD Addin → Group Cells and Rows → Menu Insert Menu

Command ID: btnInsertMultipleColumns

What it does

Inserts several blank columns at once to the left of the active cell's column, replacing Excel's repeated Insert–Insert–Insert. It is handy whenever a tracking table has to grow: six columns for six months of progress, four payment-instalment columns in a bill of quantities, or a "Quantity – Unit price – Amount – Remark" block dropped into the middle of an existing form.

How to use

1. Click a cell in the column that the new columns should appear before (that column shifts to the right).
2. Go to tab DVD Addin → group Cells and Rows → Insert Menu → click Insert Columns.
3. A window opens with two tabs — Rows and Columns — already on the Columns tab. The input box accepts digits only.
4. The default count comes from Preferences ▸ Cells and Rows ▸ "Default insert row / column count"; change it if needed (valid range 1 to 1000; an invalid entry shows a red error line under the box).
5. Click OK (or press Enter). The command acts on whichever tab is showing, so switching to the Rows tab and pressing OK inserts rows instead.
6. The blank columns appear immediately left of the original position and the existing data shifts right.

Example

An acceptance-quantity tracking sheet has columns A No., B Work description, C Unit, D Contract quantity. The client asks for four payment instalments to be tracked, inserted before column D.

Click cell D1 → Insert Columns → type 4 → OK. The table becomes A No., B Work description, C Unit, D–G blank (add the Instalment 1…4 headers), H Contract quantity. Formulas that referenced the old columns are re-pointed by Excel automatically.

Notes

• New columns always go left of the active cell — to extend the right edge of a table, select the first empty column past the last one.
• The valid count is 1–1000; a stored default outside that range falls back to 1.
• OK acts on the visible tab, which is easy to miss if you switched tabs before clicking.
• Inserting columns shifts print areas, named ranges and any Quick Input source rules that were stored as addresses — check them afterwards.
• Excel's insert can be undone with Ctrl+Z, but formulas whose references were rewritten deserve a quick review rather than blind trust in undo.

Related

• Insert Rows — the other tab of the same window, for inserting multiple rows.
• Insert and Copy — insert rows and copy a template block into them in one pass.
• Delete blanks — tidy the table up after restructuring it.
• Preferences — where the default insert count is set.