Excel: Paste Special Not Available After the Cut Command

 Last reviewed: October 31, 1994
Article ID: Q32367

SUMMARY

The Paste Special command in Microsoft Excel is available only for use after the Copy command is used. Paste Special cannot be used after the Cut command is used.

To move information without the formatting, do the following:

  1. Select the cells that will be moved.

  2. From the Edit menu, choose Cut.

  3. Select the destination for the selection (either the same size selection, or just the upper-left cell).

  4. From the Edit menu, choose Paste.

  5. Select the pasted cells.

  6. From the Edit menu, choose Clear and click Formats to remove borders, number formatting, style, or alignment formatting.

Note: The keyboard command COMMAND+B cannot be used to perform the Clear in this example because when the Clear command is performed with the keyboard, the Clear dialog box does not appear and Clear All is the default.

MORE INFORMATION

This behavior is by design. The Paste Special command gives you the option to choose what information is copied to the new location. When you use Cut, Excel MOVES the information from the current location. When you use Copy, Excel leaves the information in the current location and gives you the option to duplicate the information in new locations by using Paste or Paste Special.

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Additional reference words: 1.00 1.03 1.04 1.06 1.50 2.20 3.00

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Last reviewed: October 31, 1994
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