Using the Paste Special Command in Excel


Now when we have had a good feel about the Excel interface, and some practice of using familiar functions like Copy and Paste to manipulate, move, and duplicate data on our spreadsheets. But after using these features for a while now, we have faced a common problem lot of times, that we are unable to figure out a solution for : while we are copying and pasting cells, everything about the cell is copied and pasted — not just the value of the cell, but also its format. And, if we copy and paste a cell containing a formula, the formula itself is duplicated rather than the value that the formula outputs. This is often helpful, but sometimes it doesn't give the wanted result due to relative cell references. Sometimes, we just want to copy and paste the values of cells without bringing along anything else! That's where the Paste Special command comes in. Once we have copied the contents of a cell or range of cells, it is quick and easy to paste only the parts of that cell that we want — whether that means values, formulas or formats. Let us have a look at Paste Special to get a feel that how we can use it in practice.

Pasting values

Let us say that we have got a spreadsheet of calculations created for our manager, who has asked for a list of SnackWorld sales numbers monthwise:
We have used a series of complicated formulas to calculate these values based off of an external data table, and now we want to send our output to the manager. But, we don't want to send those complicated formulas — our manager just wants to see our final numbers, not the unnecessary information that how we got there. To solve this problem, we will copy the entire range, then paste it as values in the same place from which we have copied it. Let us start by copying our range:
Then, we will head to the Paste Special menu on the Home section of the Ribbon.
When we hit the Paste Special option, a new dialogue appears on which we can tell Excel exactly what about our source data and what we want to paste. In this case, we will choose the "Values" option, because we do not want to carry over any formulas — just the values that those formulas output.
When we press the OK button, the Paste Special operation is completed.

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