Quick Start Guide

Learn how to use SheetClean to find and remove duplicates in just 5 minutes.

Before You Begin

Make sure you have:

• ✅ Installed SheetClean (see Installation Guide)
• ✅ Opened a Google Sheets document with data
• ✅ Selected a range of data (or we'll auto-select for you)

Your First Duplicate Check

Let's walk through finding duplicates in a simple dataset.

Step 1: Open SheetClean

1. In your Google Sheets document, click Extensions → SheetClean → 🧹 Run SheetClean
2. The SheetClean sidebar opens on the right side

You'll see your current sheet information at the top showing the sheet name and data range.

Step 2: Select Your Data

SheetClean needs to know which data to check:

Option A: Let SheetClean auto-select

• Click the Select all data icon (📄) at the top of the sidebar
• SheetClean automatically selects all data in your sheet

Option B: Manual selection

• Select your data range directly in the spreadsheet (e.g., A1:D100)
• Click the Sync range icon (🔄) to update SheetClean

The sidebar will display your selected range information, such as "100 rows × 4 columns (A1:D100)".

Step 3: Choose a Feature

For your first check, let's use Remove Duplicates - the fastest way to clean your data:

1. In the sidebar, under 🗑️ Remove, click Remove Duplicates
2. A new view opens with auto-detected settings

Step 4: Review Auto-Detected Settings

SheetClean automatically analyzes your data and shows:

Auto-detected settings:

• Range - The data range being checked (e.g., A1:D100)
• Headers - Whether row 1 contains headers (Yes/No)
• Columns - Which columns will be compared (usually all)
• Total rows - How many rows will be processed

SheetClean is smart - it can detect if your first row contains headers and will skip it during comparison.

Step 5: Choose What to Keep

Select what to do with duplicate rows:

• Keep first occurrence ✅ (Recommended) - Keeps the first row, removes later duplicates
• Keep last occurrence - Keeps the last row, removes earlier duplicates
• Remove all occurrences - Removes ALL duplicate rows (use with caution!)

For most cases, "Keep first occurrence" is the best choice.

Step 6: Review Options

Three helpful options are enabled by default:

• ✅ Create backup before removal - Automatically creates a backup (highly recommended)
• ✅ Show summary after completion - Displays results after processing
• ✅ Skip empty rows - Ignores blank rows during comparison

You can also enable:

• ☐ Case sensitive comparison - Treats "Apple" and "apple" as different

Step 7: Remove Duplicates

Click the blue Quick Remove Duplicates button at the bottom.

SheetClean will:

1. Create a backup of your data
2. Analyze all rows for duplicates
3. Remove duplicate rows based on your settings
4. Show you a summary

Processing time: Typically 1-2 seconds for 1,000 rows, 3-5 seconds for 10,000 rows.

Understanding Results

After processing, you'll see a success screen with important information:

Results Summary

Rows Removed: The number of duplicate rows that were deleted

• Example: "14 Rows Removed"

Rows Kept: The number of unique rows remaining

• Example: "86 Rows Kept"

Backup Information

If a backup was created, you'll see:

💾 Backup created: [timestamp]

Two buttons let you:

• 👁️ View Backup - Unhides the backup sheet so you can see it
• 📋 See All Backups → - Opens the Backups manager

Where are backups stored? SheetClean creates hidden sheets in your spreadsheet named "Backup_[SheetName]_[timestamp]". You can unhide them anytime from View → Hidden sheets in Google Sheets.

Common Actions After Duplicate Removal

Undo Changes (Restore from Backup)

If you want to undo the changes:

1. Click 📋 See All Backups → in the results screen (or from the main menu)
2. Find the most recent backup
3. Click 🔄 Restore
4. Confirm the restoration

SheetClean will replace your current data with the backup.

Remove More Duplicates

Click Remove More Duplicates to start a new duplicate check with different settings.

View the Backup Sheet

To see what data was removed:

1. Click 👁️ View Backup in the results
2. The backup sheet appears as a new tab at the bottom
3. Compare the backup with your cleaned data

Try Other Features

Now that you've removed duplicates, explore other powerful features:

Find Duplicates (Before Removing)

Want to see duplicates before removing them?

1. Go back to the main sidebar
2. Under 🔍 Find, click Find Duplicates
3. Choose which columns to compare
4. Select what to find (duplicates, unique values, or first occurrences)
5. Choose actions like Highlight with color or Add status column
6. Click Next to review settings and process

This gives you more control and lets you review duplicates before taking action.

Find Duplicate Cells

Check for duplicates at the cell level instead of entire rows:

1. Under 🔍 Find, click Find Duplicate Cells
2. Select your range
3. SheetClean highlights individual cells that appear multiple times
4. Perfect for finding repeated values in a single column

Compare Sheets

Check for duplicates across different sheets:

1. Under 📊 Compare, click Compare Sheets
2. Select two sheets to compare
3. Choose columns to compare
4. SheetClean shows matches and differences

Best Practices

Before Removing Duplicates

Always create a backup - Enable the "Create backup before removal" option. This lets you undo changes if needed.

Test on a copy first - If working with critical data, duplicate your entire spreadsheet and test SheetClean on the copy first.

Check your selection - Make sure you've selected the right range. Use "Select all data" to automatically select everything.

Choosing Comparison Columns

Compare all columns - For true duplicates (every column matches), use all columns.

Compare key columns only - For business duplicates (e.g., same email or ID), select only the identifying columns.

Include multiple identifiers - Comparing multiple columns (like First Name + Last Name + Email) is more accurate than a single column.

After Removing Duplicates

Verify the results - Scroll through your data to make sure the right rows were kept.

Check the summary - If more rows were removed than expected, restore from backup and adjust settings.

Clean up backups - After confirming results, you can delete old backups from the Backups manager.

Quick Tips

💡 Selection shortcuts:

• Press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Cmd+A (Mac) in your sheet, then click "Sync range"
• Use the "Select all data" button for automatic selection

💡 Speed up processing:

• SheetClean can handle millions of cells
• Larger datasets take longer but remain fast (10,000 rows ≈ 5 seconds)

💡 Case sensitivity matters:

• "Apple" and "apple" are considered the same by default
• Enable "Case sensitive" if capitalization matters in your data

Troubleshooting

"No duplicates found" but I know there are duplicates

Solution: Check if you're comparing the right columns. Two rows are only duplicates if ALL compared columns match exactly.

Results look wrong

Solution: Restore from backup, then:

1. Check if "Has headers" is set correctly
2. Verify which columns are being compared
3. Try "Find Duplicates" first to preview before removing

Can't find my backup

Solution: Backups are hidden sheets. Go to View → Hidden sheets in Google Sheets, or use SheetClean's Backups manager (💾 Backups in the menu).

Next Steps

You now know the basics of SheetClean! Here's what to learn next:

1. Set up automation - Save time by automating duplicate checks
2. Advanced duplicate detection - Learn all the options for finding and removing duplicates
3. Explore Compare features - Compare sheets and columns for more complex duplicate detection

Need Help?

• 📧 Email support: [email protected]
• 📚 Help Center: appenso.com/help/sheetclean
• 🎥 Video Tutorial: Watch on YouTube

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Great job! You've completed your first duplicate check with SheetClean. Continue exploring the features to become a data cleaning expert.