Can't Insert column without copying drop-down from adjacent column...

[Kennelmouth]

Excel 2003
Rows 1-11 make up a heading with cells A-I merged variously.
Starting at row 12 every cell in column A has a drop-down list, and column B is formatted for date, conditional formatting so that if the date is prior to today it is highlighted red. I need to add a column in between A and B (it would GREAT if it were an identical copy of B, actually, but just a blank one would be fine), but every time I try to do this the new column for some reason contains the drop down list from column A, so that column A and the new column B are identical.

FYI, I work in a gated community, this document is a list of home-owners and approved guests, so the header (rows 1A through 11I) is a stylized header that contains the owner info, and below that column A has a drop-down with (guest, contractor), column B is the date for expiration of the authorization for the person to be on site. I want to insert the NEW column B to be the date that the authorization BEGINS, but instead I get only the drop-down. THERE ARE 153 IDENTICAL SHEETS (I haven't entered the personal info yet) AND THEY ALL NEED TO CHANGE...so I'd prefer a solution that allows me to do all of them at once.

You are my last hope...

Please help.

Thank you, Josh.

 

[AlphaFrog]

Hi Josh and welcome.

Step 1: Select all 153 sheets that you want to duplicate Column B

• Left-click on the tab (lower left of your screen) of the 1st sheet
• Using the sheet slider bar, scroll to the last sheet
• While holding sown the Shift key, left-click on the last sheet tab.
• This should select all 153 sheets.

Step 2: Copy column B

• On any selected sheet, left-click on the the "B" to select all of column B
• Select "Copy" from the Edit menu
• From the Insert menu, select "Copied Cells"

Done

 

[Kennelmouth]

Thank you for the reply, unfortunately I just get the same error messages; if I select B column and try to Insert Copied Cells I get something to the effect of "can't alter merged cells," and if I just try to insert below the header I still get the "can't be done with current resources" message. I've tried it on two different computers, because I wasn't sure exactly what "resources" I am lacking.

And of course, with all 153 pages highlighted (or even with just the whole column selected on a single sheet), I cannot select "validations" to remove the drop-down boxes. It would seem that I have to do it cell by cell.

But again, thank you for the reply and the help.