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]
246 comments
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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
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Jerry
commented
Agreed. The option to choose the default paste behavior should be available to set for a workbook. The annoying "let's paste hyperlinked text into a protected worksheet in an unprotected cell and wreck a week's worth of work" behavior is bad enough. Not giving us the option to help Excel novices to not wreck their work is callous, cold, possibly diabolical.
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Anonymous
commented
Microsoft, what on earth are you thinking? Did you know Excel is for spreadsheets? It's not powerpoint. why on earth would you not provide a default paste setting, or, at a minimum, make the default match destination formatting? this is STUPID. fix it already. our whole lives, we've had the functionality of simply pasting text. you guys get this genius idea to include formatting, and don't give us an option to change / set that behavior? it's so aggravating. who comes up with this garbage?
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Anonymous
commented
I find it incredibly frustrating and short-sighted, and frankly stupid, that this is available in some Office products and not others.
So often I copy things from web pages with all sorts of formatting. That's almost never useful in Excel, which is about tabulation of data. Surely to God the option to set a default paste setting is an obviously needed feature!
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Stéphane English
commented
This is essential. In fact keeping the destination formatting should be the default, because ctrl+V breaks any conditional formatting in the destination block of cells - which is a real pain when I’m using conditional formats for heat mapping or highlighting information within a table.
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Anonymous
commented
I'm not doing graphic design in excel I just want the TEXT
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Tim Bell
commented
Futski and Trisch: It seems to be relative to what's being pasted - if you're copying and pasting text from the web into a cell, you don't get "Paste Values" as a hotbar option (so Ctrl-V, Ctrl, V doesn't work but Ctrl-V, Ctrl, M does) regardless of what options you have set.
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Futski
commented
Tim, I also use O365.
You may want to check the setting that Roy found.
File|Options|Advanced|Cut, copy, and paste | Show Paste Options button when content is pasted should be checked. -
Trisch
commented
Tim match destination formatting is different from paste as values. I use 365 at work and Ctrl V, Ctrl, V worked for me.
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Lloyd Chircop
commented
Excellent tip Tim, thank you.
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Tim Bell
commented
For Excel 365, the current workaround hotkey is no longer "Ctrl-V, Ctrl, V" as "Paste Values" isn't in the hotbar. You now have to use "Ctrl-V, Ctrl, M" for Match Destination Formatting.
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Futski
commented
Roy, Glad it worked for you. And good find on the Options / Advanced / Cut Copy Paste / Show Paste Options. Mine is indeed checked.
And you are absolutely correct when you you say some options should be carried thru at the spreadsheet level. Default PSV being one of them.
And like you, Alt-ESV just flows out my fingertips every time I copy/paste. But I / we shouldn't need to resort to that. MS really needs fix this and add a worksheet level default. That way we won't need to go back and fix everybody elses carelessness (I had another word there, but thought it'd get censored :-) .
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Futski
commented
Roy, Not a cup of water. :-D
It's not Ctrl-V, Ctrl-V. It's 3 distinct keystrokes
Ctrl-V
Ctrl
VYou'll see that after the initial Ctrl-V paste, pressing Ctrl all by itself pops up a paste dialog box. Then V for Values only.
You can also use other options instead of V, like F (Formulas) or B (All formatting except Borders) etc. -
ZC88
commented
If you usually work on your own workbooks, add Paste Values and Paste Formulas to the Quick Access Toolbar. This way one can paste as whish with a single Click. (best option I found).
On the other hand... if you develop Workbooks for others to use, then the default in any protected sheet should be paste as Formulas. Much more usefull than adding a lock to the Tab Sheet Name, as MS did recently on latest updates (why?). There simply is no practical way to avoid your users to F-up the cell formats, and you cannot "educate" them all to not use CTRL-V.
This thread is running for almost 5 years and MS doesn't seem to listen. There are many others threads with different suggestions, but the underlying problem is the same.
Excel is a great tool. Please MS listen to your users and developpers. -
Anonymous
commented
We actually do need a reliable way to protect the formatting from wild pastes.
Ctrl-V Ctrl V is just a workaround, just good enought for advanced users, willing to preserve the original formatting.
Please note it's a 3 steps shortcut: 1) Ctrl-V, 2) Ctrl, 3) V -
Anonymous
commented
Terribly sorry but I should have mentioned that PureText also has a direct download in 32 and 64 bit versions and does not need an installer at all so it can be downloaded and just run from anywhere if the Windows Store option is not available for whatever reason.
https://stevemiller.net/puretext/ -
Lloyd Chircop
commented
Many corporations disable the Microsoft Store. So downloading an app like PureText is not an option.
CTRL+V, CTRL+V does not work for me either.
I deal with spreadsheets that contain a massive amount of raw data and some of that data is manipulated with Formula's to get the content I need, then I use that to create pivot tables for reporting. Having to deal with alternative methods to copy / paste this data is slowing me down. This issue not being addressed by Microsoft is causing loss of many hours of productivity.