I have a spreadsheet that i am trying to add a column to and i get the
following message;

To prevent possible loss of data, Microsoft Office Excel cannot shift
nonblank cells off the worksheet.

Try to locate the last nonblank cell by pressing ctrl+end, and delete or
clear all in cells between the last cell and the end of your data.  Then
select cell A1 and save your workbook to reset the last cell used.

Or, you can move the data to a new location and try again.

I have tried both and still get the same message.

Note im using office 2003.