How to Remove Instructions in Excel Template
Nothing beats the feeling of finding a great Excel template that’s perfectly designed for your task, whether it's tracking a budget, managing projects, or building a sales forecast. That is, until you open it up and find it’s cluttered with bright yellow text boxes, pop-up comments on every other cell, and hidden setup guides. Taming a new template is the first step to making it your own. This tutorial will walk you through, step-by-step, how to clear out all those instructions and get your template ready for real work.
Before You Start: A Quick Note on Making a Backup
Before you start deleting elements, it’s always a smart move to save a clean, original copy of the template. Just use "Save As" and give it a new name, like "My Project Tracker - Clean Master" or something similar. This way, if you accidentally delete something important (like a hidden formula or a piece of a chart), you have a fresh version to go back to without having to download it all over again.
Finding and Deleting Floating Instructions (Text Boxes & Shapes)
Often, template creators use text boxes or other shapes (like arrows) to point out key features or provide high-level instructions. These are the most obvious pieces of clutter to get rid of, and thankfully, they're usually the easiest to handle.
The One-by-One Method
For templates with just a few instruction boxes, the direct approach is fastest:
Click on the shape or text box you want to remove. You'll see handles appear around its border, letting you know it's selected.
Press the Delete key on your keyboard. That's it!
Repeat for any other visible boxes on the sheet.
If you have multiple boxes to delete, you can hold down the Ctrl key (or Cmd on Mac) while clicking each box. This selects them all at once. Once they're all selected, one tap of the Delete key will remove them all.
The Pro Move: Delete All Objects at Once
Sometimes a dashboard-style template is covered in objects. Clicking them one-by-one is tedious. Excel has a handy feature that can select every single shape, text box, and chart on your sheet at the same time.
A word of caution: This method will select all graphic objects, which can include charts or logos you might want to keep. It's best used on sheets that are primarily for data entry, or if you can see that the only objects are instructional ones.
Go to the Home tab on the Excel ribbon.
On the far right, click the Find & Select dropdown menu.
From the menu, choose Go To Special...
A new window will pop up. Select the Objects option and click OK.
Instantly, Excel will highlight every single shape, text box, button, and chart on the active worksheet. Now you have a choice:
If every highlighted object is junk, simply press the Delete key.
If there are some things you want to keep (like a company logo or a key chart), hold down the Ctrl key (Cmd on Mac) and click on the items you want to save. This will deselect them, leaving only the unwanted items ready for deletion. Once you're ready, press Delete.
Getting Rid of Comments and Notes
Many templates use comments or notes to explain what data should go into a specific column or cell. These usually appear as a tiny triangle in the corner of a cell, revealing a pop-up box when you hover your mouse over it.
In modern Excel, you might see "threaded comments," which are designed for collaboration, and older "notes" (which used to be called comments). Their purpose in a template is the same: providing cell-specific guidance.
Deleting Comments Individually
If you only have a few, this is the quickest way to get them out of your sheet:
Right-click on the cell that has the comment or note indicator.
From the context menu, select Delete Comment or Delete Note.
Deleting All Comments on a Sheet Instantly
For sheets littered with comments, removing them all at once is a huge time-saver. Just like with objects, we can use the "Go To Special" feature.
Go to the Home tab > Find & Select > Go To Special...
In the pop-up window, select Comments (this will get both modern comments and older notes).
Click OK. Excel will highlight every cell on the sheet that contains a comment.
Now, navigate back to the Home tab. In the "Cells" section, click the Delete dropdown (the one with a red 'X', not the keyboard key) and choose Delete Sheet Rows or Delete Sheet Columns. Be careful here, as this will also remove any data in those cells.
Alternatively, and much more safely, once the cells are selected, you can go to the Review tab and click the Delete button in the "Comments" section repeatedly until all comments are gone. This leaves your cell data intact.
The Review tab method is generally safer and less destructive than deleting rows or columns entirely.
Uncovering Hidden Information
Template designers often hide worksheets, rows, or columns that contain raw data, complex calculations, or setup instructions. Clearing these out can sometimes be necessary, but tread carefully - you might be deleting the engine that makes your template work.
How to Find and Unhide Sheets
If you see sheet tabs like "Dashboard" and "Data Entry" but know there's more to it, some sheets might be hidden.
Right-click on any visible sheet tab at the bottom of the Excel window.
If the Unhide... option is available (i.e., not greyed out), click it.
A box will appear listing all hidden sheets. You can select one and click OK to make it visible.
Often, you'll find sheets named "Instructions," "Setup," or "Calculations." It's generally safe to delete a sheet named "Instructions," but you should be cautious about removing anything that looks like it's used for formulas or data validation lists.
How to Find and Unhide Rows or Columns
Hidden rows or columns are often used to store supporting calculations without cluttering the main view. You can spot them by looking for a small double line between headers or a jump in the sequence (e.g., column headers go from A, B, F, G, skipping C,D,E).
To unhide columns, select the columns on either side of the hidden ones. For example, if columns C through E are hidden, click the "B" header, hold the mouse button down, and drag over to the "F" header.
Right-click on the selected headers and choose Unhide.
The process is identical for rows, just select the row headers above and below the hidden section.
After unhiding, take a look at what was there. If it's just helpful text, you might be able to delete it. If it's full of formulas that feed your main dashboard, it's best to just hide it again to keep things clean without breaking functionality.
One Final Check: Locked or Protected Sheets
Finally, some template authors protect certain cells or entire sheets to prevent users from accidentally deleting important formulas. If you try to delete something and get a warning that the cell is protected, you'll need to turn that protection off.
Go to the Review tab on the Excel ribbon.
Look for a button that says Unprotect Sheet or Unprotect Workbook.
If you click it, it may ask for a password. Most free or commercially sold templates don’t lock you out with a password - their protection is usually just to prevent mistakes.
If there's no password, the button will simply toggle to say Protect Sheet, and you're now free to edit anything. If a password is required and you don't have it, you may be unable to make changes to those specific parts of the template.
Final Thoughts
Creating a customized, clean Excel template often involves removing clutter and protecting important data. By systematically deleting text boxes, comments, unhiding hidden elements, and checking for protections, you can transform a confusing, cluttered template into a professional, streamlined tool ready for your data.
While mastering an Excel template is satisfying, the cycle of exporting data and pasting it into disconnected spreadsheets can become a weekly chore. At Graphed, we aim to eliminate that process. Instead of working from static templates, we enable you to connect your data sources directly—like Google Analytics, Shopify, and your ad platforms—and build dynamic, real-time dashboards using just plain English. This gives you perpetually updated insights, freeing you to focus on strategy instead of struggling with spreadsheet administration.