Google Sheets – Disable Drag & Drop in Google Sheets

copy/pastegoogle sheets

DEFINING DRAG & DROP:

In google sheets if you have a cell or cells currently selected you can perform an operation on them.
One such option is to move your cursor to the edge of the selection field and click-&-hold. This allows you to perform a cut+paste operation via drag and drop. You simply move the selection where you want to paste it, and you release the mouse button.

ADDITIONAL CONTEXT / QUESTION:

Protecting ranges causes difficulties when using filters. Is there a script I can alter or right-click and inspect element to delete a line of code or something? This is probably one of the most annoying features in Google-sheets. ( Draging rows / columns is pretty useful and I rarely run into the same problem since at the worst it moves other content out of the way instead of replacing it, however if disabling drag and drop for cells also disables it for whole rows / columns I would be willing )

TLDR:

ACTUAL PROBLEM:

I would like to disable drag & drop of cells if possible. It is a taxing operation especially if you have a huge sheet like I do. (26 x 8000 spreadsheet). Also I fear that people working on the sheet may inadvertently drag and drop & be unaware that they have destroyed data.

Best Answer

It's not possible to disable drag & drop while keeping the range editable. The alternative is to use other mean to add data to the spreadsheet that could be:

  • Use an secondary spreadsheet and import the data by using IMPORTRANGE
  • Use a Google Form
  • Use a Custom form. This requires the use of Google Apps Script or the Google Sheets API.
  • Publish the data to a web page or other web resource an use IMPORTHTML, IMPORTXML, IMPORTDATA, IMPORTFEED
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