Cut/Copy and Paste

Simple Cut/Copy and Paste
Excel provides many different methods for easily moving data back and forth between different areas of a workbook and between different workbooks.  You can even move or copy the data to a different application, such as a word processor.  The easiest method is to simply use the cut and paste method.  To use this feature, simply highlight the data you wish to transfer and click copy (from the menu or icon). Toggle to the area or application where you want this data to live and click paste. An example is shown in the following: 

         

Pasting with Enter Key
Most people don't realize that you can Paste by just moving to the cell and pressing the Enter key.  Once you are used to it, this approach can be slightly faster than clicking the right mouse button and selecting paste or clicking on the paste icon on the Standard Toolbar.

Use the Paste Special to Turn Formula into Their Output
The past special command allows a number of variations on the simple paste command.  The most frequently used variation is the Paste Special – Values command which can be used to turn formula into their output.  For example, if you have generated a list of random numbers using the =RAND function, you don’t want your random numbers to continue to change each time the workbook is recalculated.  To eliminate the formula and have them replaced with the random numbers they have generated you could use the Paste Special – Values command.  Start by copying the range.  Then use the Paste Special – Values command to Paste the resulting values over the top of the formula.

Use the Paste Special Command to Turn Labels Into Values
Often when you import text files into an Excel spreadsheet the numbers will be picked up as labels rather than numbers.  This also happens frequently when you create an Excel spreadsheet with a program other than Excel for later use as a spreadsheet file (example: you are in a database program that has the ability to export a table to an Excel file format).  Although you can use the =Value() function to convert labels to values, this method is often time consuming and involves inserting ranges, building multiple copies of the formula, and more.  A simpler and much faster method is to use the Paste Special Multiply command.  Here is how it works:

Type the value 1 in some otherwise empty cell that is not formatted in the text format. Copy this cell to the clipboard with the Copy command. Highlight the range containing the labels you would like to be converted to numbers. Choose Paste Special Multiply 

Before

Use Paste Special Multiply
If you have a range of numbers you would like to increase by a fixed percentage you can easily increase the range using the Paste Special Multiply command.  For example, suppose we have a spreadsheet with a column of numbers we would like to increase by 15%.  This is done as follows: 

     ·     Place the value 1.15 in an otherwise unused cell.
     ·     Copy this cell to the clipboard with the Copy command.
     ·     Highlight the range of cells you would like to have increased by 15%.
     ·     Select the Paste Special Multiply command. 

  

Word to Excel vs. Excel to Word
When you paste information from an Excel worksheet to a Word document without selecting Paste Special in Word, you get a table.  You can convert that table into text using the Table – Convert – Table to Text command.  All of the formatting from Excel will also follow the data to Word. 

 
Pasting Data from Excel to Word Without the Paste Special Command  

Alternatively if you did not want the formatting and/or did not want the data to come over as a table, you could select the Paste Special command from under the Edit menu in Word.  This would give you a number of different paste alternatives including creating a link between the data in the Excel workbook and the Word document.  Important, if you are going to create a paste link, first name and save the Excel workbook.  Otherwise Word will not be able to create the link because it will not know the name and location of the file for future link updates. 

The Paste Special Dialog Box in MS Word

If you are going the other way and pasting from MS Word to Excel the information you paste will generally all go into one cell unless there is an end of paragraph, in which case the information will go into multiple cells.  The Paste Special command in Excel offers no relief from this problem.

Pasting Text from MS Word to and Excel Workbook 

If the information you copy from the Word document is a table, then it will properly paste in as multiple cells where each cell in the Word table becomes a cell in the Excel worksheet. 

Paste Link
You can Paste Link data from Excel or Word into Word or Excel (of Power Point, Publisher, etc), linking the data so that if you change the data at the source, the destination changes as well. This is a great application for generating a Word document that is updated each month. Below we see the command, as well as the resulting chart that was paste linked from Excel. When the Excel Chart is changed, the new chart is reflected in the word document. 

- END -