Zen and the Art of Excel Efficiency

This is one of those simple things that most of y’all know, but I thought I’d mention it in case you didn’t. Once something is copied (edit->copy, or ctrl+c, or the copy button), you can paste it as usual (edit->paste, or ctrl+v, or the paste button). But I propose an alternative.

By right-clicking you can access an alternate menu for pasting called “paste special.” This is also available through the edit menu.

Paste special allows you to paste:

• the values without any formulas or formatting
• the formulas without formatting
• the formatting only
• paste as an operation like addition, or multiplication
• transpose the values or formulas
• paste a link to the original cells
• all of the above

It’s really a handy tool. try it out sometime!