Copying and Moving Data

The copy or Cut command can be used to duplicate or move highlighted data or formula. When you copy and paste, you are making a duplicate copy of the contents of one or more cells and placing the copy into another cell or range of cells, so you can copy entire cells or their contents.

On the other hand, when you cut and paste, you are removing the contents of one cell or a range from the original location and placing them into another cell or range. You can also copy or cut specific contents or attributes from the cells. For example, you can copy the resulting value of a formula without copying the formula itself, or you can copy only the formula.

When you copy a cell by dragging or by clicking Cut or Copy, and Paste icons on the Standard toolbar, Microsoft Excel copies the entire cell, including formulas and their resulting values, comments, and cell formats. If the selected copy area includes hidden cells, Microsoft Excel also copies the hidden cells. If the paste area contains hidden rows or columns, you might need to unhide the paste area to see all of the copied cells.

Move or Copy Entire Cells

1. Select the cells that you want to move or copy.
2. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, do one of the following:

1. To move cells, click Cut . Keyboard shortcut is to press CTRL+X.
2. To copy cells, click Copy . Keyboard shortcut is to press CTRL+C.
3. Select the upper-left cell of the paste area.

Important.

To move or copy a selection to a different worksheet or workbook, click the sheet tab or switch to another workbook, and then select the upper-left cell of the paste area.

4. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Paste . Keyboard shortcut is to press CTRL+V.

Important.

1. To choose specific options when you paste cells, you can click the drop down arrow below Paste, and then choose your options. For instance, you can click 'Paste Special', where you can select only values, values and formulas, values and formats, etc.
2. Excel replaces existing data in the paste area when you cut and paste cells to move them.
3. When you copy cells, cell references are automatically adjusted. When you move cells, however, cell references are not adjusted, and the contents of those cells and of any cells that point to them may be displayed as reference errors. In this case, you will need to adjust the references manually.

Move or Copy Entire Cells by Using the Mouse

1. Select the cells or range of cells you want to move or copy.
2. Do one of the following:
1. To move the cell(s), point to the border of the selection. When the pointer becomes a move pointer , drag the cell(s) to another location.
2. To copy the cell(s), hold down CTRL while you point to the border of the selection. When the pointer becomes a copy pointer , drag the cell(s) to another location.

Insert Moved or Copied Cells between Existing Cells

1. Select the cells or range of cells that contains the data you want to move or copy.
2. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, do one of the following:
1. To move the selection, click Cut.
2. To copy the selection, click Copy.
3. Right-click the upper-left cell of the paste area, and then click Insert Cut Cells or Insert Copied Cells on the shortcut menu.
4. In the Insert Paste dialog box, click the direction to which you want to shift the surrounding cells.

Important.

These steps are use to change the location of a given data. Using these features, you can move and copy data between worksheets, workbooks, or other Windows applications. They do not replace existing data on the worksheet. Copy cell values, cell formats, or formulas only.

You can copy specific contents or attributes from the cells without copying the entire contents. For example, you can copy the resulting values of a formula without copying the formula itself, or you can copy only the formula, format of other attributes of cell(s).

When you paste copied data, you can achieve any of the following:

• Convert any formulas in the cell to the calculated values without overwriting the existing formatting.
• Paste only the cell formatting, such as font color or fill color (and not the contents of the cells).
• Paste only the formulas (and not the calculated values).

1. Select the cell or range of cells that contains the values, cell formats, or formulas that you want to copy.
2. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Copy.
3. Select the paste area or the cell where you want to paste.
4. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click the arrow below Paste, and then do one of the following:
1. To paste values only, click Paste Values.
2. To paste cell formats only, click Paste Special, and then click Formats under Paste.
3. To paste formulas only, click Formulas.
4. To transpose the content, click Paste Special, and under Operation, select Transpose and the click Ok.

Transposing cell contents is changing data in column to re-arrange them in a row or vice versa.

Important.

If the copied formulas contain relative cell references, Excel adjusts the references (and the relative parts of mixed cell references) in the duplicate formulas. If the copied formulas contain absolute cell references, the references in the duplicate formulas are not changed. If you don't get the results that you want, you can also change the references in the original formulas to either relative or absolute cell references and then recopy the cells.