How to Copy and Paste in Excel: Values, Formulas and Shortcuts

You copy a column of totals, paste it into another sheet, and get a wall of #REF! errors. Or the numbers arrive fine, but they drag along bold borders and a yellow fill from the original report. Knowing how to copy and paste in Excel properly is less about ⌘C and ⌘V and more about choosing what gets pasted: values, formulas, formatting, or all three.

This guide covers the core shortcuts, Paste Special, the tricks spreadsheet regulars use every day, and how to stop re-copying the same cells over and over.

The Basic Shortcuts

Excel uses the standard shortcuts, plus a few of its own:

Action	Mac	Windows
Copy	⌘C	Ctrl+C
Cut	⌘X	Ctrl+X
Paste	⌘V	Ctrl+V
Paste Special	⌃⌘V	Ctrl+Alt+V
Undo	⌘Z	Ctrl+Z
Cancel copy mode	Esc	Esc

When you copy cells, Excel draws a moving dashed border — the "marching ants" — around them. That border means the range is ready to paste, and you can paste it several times in a row. Press Esc when you're done to clear it.

Cut works differently than you might expect. Cutting cells and pasting them elsewhere moves them, and any formulas pointing at those cells update to follow. Copying, by contrast, leaves the originals alone.

Paste Values Only (the Most Useful Trick)

Most Excel paste problems come from pasting formulas where you meant to paste results. If a cell contains =B2*C2 and you paste it somewhere without matching data, you get zeros or errors.

To paste just the numbers or text a formula produces:

• Paste Special: press Ctrl+Alt+V (Windows) or ⌃⌘V (Mac), choose Values, and click OK.
• Ribbon: go to Home → Paste (click the arrow under the icon) and pick Paste Values.
• Keyboard sequence on Windows: press Alt, H, V, V one after another.
• Newer shortcut: recent versions of Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows also support Ctrl+Shift+V to paste values directly. If it doesn't work in your version, Paste Special always will.

Values-only pasting also strips the source formatting, which makes it the cleanest way to bring in data from another workbook. For clean pasting in every other app, see how to always paste as plain text.

Copying Formulas Without Breaking Them

When you copy a formula, Excel adjusts its cell references relative to the new location. =A1+B1 copied one row down becomes =A2+B2. That's usually what you want — until it isn't.

• Lock a reference with $. Write $A$1 to keep both column and row fixed, $A1 to lock only the column, or A$1 to lock only the row. Press F4 (Windows) or ⌘T (Mac) while editing a reference to cycle through the options.
• Fill instead of paste. Drag the small square at the bottom-right corner of a cell (the fill handle) to copy a formula down or across. Double-click it to fill down as far as the adjacent column has data.
• Fill down and right on Windows. Select the source cell plus the range below it and press Ctrl+D, or the range to its right and press Ctrl+R.
• Copy the exact formula text. Click into the formula bar, select the formula, and copy it from there. Pasting that text into another cell keeps the references exactly as written.

Paste Special Options Worth Knowing

The Paste Special dialog does far more than values. A few options that save real time:

• Formats. Copies only the look — fonts, fills, borders, number formats. The Format Painter (paintbrush icon on the Home tab) does the same for quick one-offs; double-click it to apply to several ranges.
• Column widths. Pastes the widths of the source columns so a copied table doesn't arrive squashed.
• Transpose. Flips rows into columns and vice versa. Check the Transpose box in Paste Special, or use the TRANSPOSE function if you want the result to stay linked to the source.
• Operations. Add, subtract, multiply or divide a pasted value into an existing range. Copy a cell containing 1.2, select your prices, choose Paste Special → Multiply, and every price goes up 20% in one step.
• Skip blanks. Prevents empty cells in the copied range from overwriting data that's already there.

After any ordinary paste, Excel also shows a small Paste Options button near the pasted range. Click it (or press Ctrl) to switch to values, formatting, or links without undoing.

Copy Only the Visible Cells

Copy a filtered list or a range with hidden rows, and Excel may paste the hidden rows too. To copy only what you can see:

• Select the range, then press Alt+; (Windows) or ⌘⇧Z (Mac) to select visible cells only.
• Or go to Home → Find & Select → Go To Special → Visible cells only.

Then copy and paste as normal.

Pasting Data From the Web or Other Apps

Tables copied from web pages, PDFs or emails often land in a single column, or bring hyperlinks and odd fonts with them. A few fixes:

• Use Paste Special and choose Text or Unicode Text to drop the HTML formatting.
• If everything ends up in one column, select it and use Data → Text to Columns to split it on commas, tabs or spaces.
• Moving data between Excel and Google Sheets? Our guide on copying and pasting in Google Docs covers how Sheets ranges behave when they arrive in a document.

The Real Bottleneck: One Item at a Time

Building a report usually means pulling a figure from one workbook, a label from another, a client name from an email, and a link from a browser tab. The system clipboard holds just one item, so every new copy wipes out the previous one — and you end up switching windows to copy the same things again.

There are a few built-in helpers:

• The Office Clipboard in Excel for Windows (Home tab → the small launcher arrow in the Clipboard group) collects up to 24 items and works across Office apps — but only while an Office app is open, and not in your other apps.
• Windows 11 clipboard history opens with Win+V and keeps recent items.
• macOS 26 Tahoe added a basic clipboard history in Spotlight (⌘Space, then ⌘4), though items expire after about eight hours and can't be pinned or organized.

Where Copaste Fits In

If spreadsheets are part of your daily work, a clipboard manager removes most of that back-and-forth. Copaste runs on Mac and Windows, with a Chrome extension that keeps browser copies in the same history:

• Unlimited history. Copy every value you need first, then paste them into your sheet in one pass.
• Search to find a number or name you copied hours ago.
• Pins for things you paste constantly: account codes, standard formulas, email templates.
• Plain-text pasting so web data doesn't bring its styling with it.
• Local-first privacy. Your history stays on your device.

Quick Reference

• Copy / Cut / Paste: ⌘C / ⌘X / ⌘V (Ctrl on Windows)
• Paste Special: ⌃⌘V / Ctrl+Alt+V
• Paste values: Paste Special → Values, or Alt, H, V, V on Windows
• Lock a reference: F4 / ⌘T
• Visible cells only: ⌘⇧Z / Alt+;
• Transpose: Paste Special → Transpose

Once these become habits, copy and paste in Excel stops being a source of broken formulas and messy formatting. Add a clipboard history on top, and you'll stop re-copying cells you already had.