provide an option to set Excel's default paste behavior
When you do an ordinary paste like Ctrl+V, Excel pastes the cell values, formatting, validation, everything. However, many users usually paste only values when working, and the extra handling to paste special is not productive.
Word and OneNote have a setting that allow the user to choose the default paste type, and that should also be available in Excel.
I know there are add-ins to workaround that and also the shortcut AppKey+V to paste values, but I think that should be a native Excel setting.
This is a great suggestion, and we want to keep the interest going. Thanks to everyone who has already voted and commented on the suggestion to have an option for the default paste behavior in Excel.
Sorry that we’ve been slow to comment and update the status on this one.
Steve K [Excel]
262 comments
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Anonymous
commented
Excel doesn't automatically merge conditional formatting rules when you copy and insert rows, resulting in fractured conditional format rules. I think this should be an option.
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Futski
commented
@ChrisK, if you are copying from the new Edge browser, you can control what the paste (ctrl-v) will do.
Go to Settings / Share, Copy and Paste. This will allow you to set Ctrl-v to be either Pasting a link, or just Plain text.
Something similar may exist in other Chromium based browsers, I'm not sure. -
ChrisK
commented
I wonder if there's some wider Microsoft or industry-wide initiative going on with copy paste because similar things happen with Teams. I copy from a website and paste in Teams and there are a bunch of nested boxes around the text as if it's copying the source html tags. I have to paste content into a text document before I can paste it into a Teams. When copying from Teams to another Teams chat, it includes these huge URLs of the source when all I need is the text. In sharepoint, some 'new look' version came out last year or the year before and it truncated all of our spreadsheets to where you have to click on a cell and then a pane on the right opens up and you have to click on content field to get the content... it also stopped allowing us to select text directly from the table for copying; now, you have to right click the field and select 'copy field text', which most of the time I don't want all of the text, so I have to paste in a text document and delete the unwanted text. The fix was to click a button that said "go back to old sharepoint" or some verbiage like that. Similar text selection and copy functionality had gone away on Facbook's app. I wonder if there was some wider initiatives across companies to prevent copying of written content as a copyrights protection? Nothing else really explains it to me other than industry leaders trying to make copying include the source for tracking purposes.
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Futski
commented
@Neil
You are correct. That's a new one on me as I don't use protected sheets too often. And I do agree with you, a person should not be able to paste formats into a cell where formatting has been locked by sheet protection. -
Neil Payne
commented
When you protect a worksheet and disable formatting of cells/rows/columns, users are still able to change the cell formatting by pasting. Surely in this case the paste operation should NOT apply any formatting changes? To me this is more of a bug than a feature enhancement.
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Jan Burgess
commented
@Futski
Thanks for that info.
My PC is on O365 business - insiders build, and my laptop runs an older version of office Pro (to get Spreadsheet Inquire), so I rarely see the current O365 general release. I must check more often. Or perhaps I should complain less - lol :)
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Futski
commented
@Jan B, Regarding the conditional formatting, the resizable rules window and rules duplication was released to general several months ago. So if you're using O365, that should be available to you. Maybe check for updates.
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Jan Burgess
commented
One possibility that I have implemented in some macro-enabled workbooks for users is to insert a macro to paste the contents of the clipboard as values in the selected cell, then assign CTRL-V to it. This over-rides the default CTRL-V behaviour
You can also put it in the personal.xlsb workbook and distribute that to users. That fixes the problem for ALL excel workbooks.
This does work well, and has save me a lot of time in some workbooks, but it's only useful if your organisation allows macros.
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Jan Burgess
commented
All the comments here are valid - but one of the most annoying things for me is "users" who are adding data to a spreadsheet and are used to using Ctrl V just will not change - nor shoudl they have to,
Conditional formatting of spreadsheets is almost impossible to manage in these cases. You end with literally hundreds of formatting lines created by the paste formatting idiocy.
And don't get me started on the conditional formatting box. At least the insiders version allows the box to be resized and rules duplicated. Maybe one day, that function will make it into the released version. If I could just delete all and import my original set, I could sort of live with the problem, but as it is it takes me hours each month redoing conditional formats because of the paste issues.
JUST FIX IT ALREADY
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Narendra
commented
Please add this feature, it will be very helpful.
Like in my case- restricting paste commands of forgetful team members via. vba undo and paste special using sendkeys is creating more problems than it solves. I hate sendkeys for it's flaws. -
Evelien
commented
Saying you've been slow to comment in 2020, 5 years after something that has been asked, is quite an understatement
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Anonymous
commented
Is there any update on this? Can we expect MS to make the change in this version or is it a waste of time?
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Mitch Haraldsson
commented
I also can not see why you would remove this option. Clearly everyone who works with excel know that, if you copy data from other source you want them to match the target formatting, not the source formatting.
I also can not understand why you would remove a feature you previously had.
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Michael Meier
commented
In old Excel version it was possible to set the default paste behavior in options.
Why Microsoft removed this? Looks like they never worked with their own application.
It's so obvious i want to have the same formating in a row, if i'm pasting something, at least in most cases.It's a horrible behavior how it is now. In One Note (not the tablet version) the solution is great (choose the default from the paste menu)
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RS
commented
Having single default paste option is not necessarily perfect as you may want different pastes throughout a day.
As a workaround it makes sense to place a different pastes on Quick Access Toolbar as shown:
(Paste, Paste Special, Data Only, Paste with Formatting, etc), insert copied cells.
Or at least different defaults for Ctrl-V, Ctrl-Shift-V, etc. -
Christa Hanson
commented
Please! Or at least allow Shift-Ctrl-V for paste without formatting, like other programs!
I feel like I spend my life "tab, F2, ctrl-V, repeat."
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Eric
commented
Plsssssssssssssssssssssssssssss add this feature. I am waiting for this for toooo long!
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Rob Ringham
commented
Please, please add this feature.
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shame
commented
How is this not a thing yet??
microsoft only care about the money. 10 years they added nothing but style to office and over price it. -
Anonymous
commented
Yes please
