Excel Technique: Using Paste Special to Lift a Copy of Values
Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level
Typing in cell values can be boring work. It can be very useful
sometimes to lift a copy of values already generated elsewhere by
formulae.
Select the range of desired values and choose Copy in the usual
way.
If you perform a normal Paste the formula and formatting will
be recreated in the new setting, which may not always be what's
wanted.
However, if instead you choose Paste Special from the Edit menu
you will be offered some interesting choices.
There's lots to explore here, but for now it is the Values choice
we want. Excel will then ignore the source formula, and associated
formatting, and will pop in the values just as if you had typed
them yourself. Isn't that handy?