Excel 2010 Bible

Chapter 4: Working with Cells and Ranges

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Note
Copying a cell normally copies the cell’s contents, any formatting that is applied to the original cell (including
conditional formatting and data validation), and the cell comment (if it has one). When you copy a cell that
contains a formula, the cell references in the copied formulas are changed automatically to be relative to their
new destination. n

Copying or moving consists of two steps (although shortcut methods do exist):

1. Select the cell or range to copy (the source range) and copy it to the Clipboard. To
   move the range instead of copying it, cut the range rather than copying it.


2. Move the cell pointer to the range that will hold the copy (the destination range)
   and paste the Clipboard contents.

Caution
When you paste information, Excel overwrites any cells that get in the way without warning you. If you find
that pasting overwrote some essential cells, choose Undo from the Quick Access toolbar (or press Ctrl+Z). n

Note
When you copy a cell or range, Excel surrounds the copied area with an animated border (sometimes referred
to as “marching ants”). As long as that border remains animated, the copied information is available for past-
ing. If you press Esc to cancel the animated border, Excel removes the information from the Clipboard. n

Because copying (or moving) is used so often, Excel provides many different methods. I discuss

each method in the following sections. Copying and moving are similar operations, so I point out

only important differences between the two.

Copying by using Ribbon commands ........................................................................

Choosing Home ➪ Clipboard ➪ Copy transfers a copy of the selected cell or range to the

Windows Clipboard and the Office Clipboard. After performing the copy part of this operation,

select the cell that will hold the copy and choose Home ➪ Clipboard ➪ Paste.

Rather than choosing Home ➪ Clipboard ➪ Paste, you can just activate the destination cell and

press Enter. If you use this technique, Excel removes the copied information from the Clipboard so

that it can’t be pasted again.

Note
If you click the Copy button more than once before you click the Paste button, Excel may automatically display
the Office Clipboard task bar. To prevent this task bar from appearing, click the Options button at the bottom
and then remove the check mark from Show Office Clipboard Automatically. n

If you’re copying a range, you don’t need to select an entire same-sized range before you click the

Paste button. You need only activate the upper-left cell in the destination range.