MS Excel: How To Copy And Paste In Excel

Let’s understand Excel’s different copy-and-paste methods one-by-one.

Excel Simple Copy and Paste

Excel provides a simple way to copy data or paste data using shortcut keys of the keyboard or using options given in the Excel Nav bar. To use copy and paste follow the steps: To Copy Data Of A Cell

• First, you need to select a cell or a particular range of cells.
• Now you have to copy the data of the selected cell. There are three ways to do so:
  • Right-click on the selected cell and click on the "copy" option from the list.
  • Select the cell and then click on the copy symbol present at the top below the Home option.
  • Select the cell and press "ctrl + c" on a keyboard to copy the data of the cell of the worksheet.

To Paste Data Copied Data In A Cell

• Click on the particular cell or range of cells where you want to paste the copied data.
• Now you have to paste the data in the selected cell. There are three ways to do so:
  • Right-click on the selected cell and click on the "paste" option from the list.
  • Select the cell and then click on the paste symbol present at the top below the Home option.
  • Select the cell and press "ctrl + v" on a keyboard to copy the data of the cell of the worksheet.

Some of the rules are defined here, which need to follow when you are using copy and paste in an Excel worksheet.

• When copy data of a cell that contains a formula, the reference of the cell in the formula will alter, unless the used with $ symbol before the reference of the column or the row.
• If copying more than one cell and then selecting a location to paste the data it will result in the copied cell ‘falling off’ at the end of the worksheet. In this case, Excel will throw an error and will not paste the copied data. This error will occur only if you try to copy the entire row or column and paste that within a worksheet.

Paste Special

Excel worksheet’s normal copy and paste will copy the data, values, formulas, or cell formatting and paste that in a selected range of cells. Sometimes when you don’t want to copy all the things then you can go with the ‘paste special’ command and paste only the value or formatting of the cell alone into the selected range of the cells.

Paste Special option is available at the right click of the selected cell or you can also access it through the navbar option under Clipboard group on the Home tab.

The paste menu contains the ‘Paste special’ shortcut in the newest version of Excel. As shown in the below image.

Paste Special Values Example

Excel Paste Special feature will be used here keep an eye on it. Here in the image cells A1-A14 contain data with colored background but if you want to copy the values only to the cells B1-B14 then you have to use the ‘Paste Special’ option. Do follow the below steps:

• Select the colored cell that is A1-A14 and copy the data of the cells.
• Then Select the second column cells where you want to paste the data-only values except formatting and right-click on the selected cells.
• Select Paste Special option from the list.
• Click on the Values option from the second list.

As a result, only values will copy to the cells B1-B1 of the worksheet.

Paste Special Transpose

Excel is linked with many features like values, formatting, etc. in the Paste Special feature. Paste Special command is used to make basic transformations. Pasting selected attributes of the copied cells in the worksheet is also possible.

Example of basic or simple transformation is explained below through an image. In the image, Excel cells A1-A5 are copied and pasted into L1-P1 cells of the worksheets.

Use Paste Special To Perform Arithmetic Operations

Excel Paste Special feature is also used to perform arithmetic operations on the selected cells of the worksheet. The values of the copied cells will add, multiply, subtract, etc. in the target cells of the worksheet.

Example of the arithmetic function will explain through an image such as here in the image column A contains values and column B also contains some value. So here we are subtracting column B from column A. So, follow the steps:

• Enter some numeric values to cells of A column.
• Enter some numeric values to cells of the B column.
• Now, copy the data of the A column.
• Select the cells of column B and right-click and select Paste Special option.
• Now select Subtract option in the Operations and click OK.

Note: As earlier in the example we subtracted whole A column values with column B but if you wants to subtract the value of a single column A with all the column of B, so, this is also possible.

To do this, simply select a cell of A column and repeat the whole procedure as we mentioned in the above example.

Copy Using Ctrl-D or Ctrl-R

Excel also has another way to copy and paste data to selected cells. ctrl + d or ctrl + r shortcuts is used to for the same purpose.

ctrl + d

• Select the first column with values.
• Press ctrl + d on the keyboard.
• By doing this, the value of the A1 column will populate the entire selected portion.

ctrl + r

• Select the first column with values and also some empty columns or rows.
• Press ctrl + r on the keyboard.
• By doing this, the value of the 1st column will populate the entire selected portion.

Copy A Worksheet

Excel also provide a feature to duplicate the Excel worksheet. Follow the below steps to make a duplicate of the worksheet:

• At the bottom you can name of the worksheet as sheet1, right click on that name.
• Now, select Move or Copy option
• Click on Create a copy check box and click OK.