Move or copy cells and cell contents
Use Cut, Copy, and Paste to move or copy cell contents. Or copy specific contents or attributes from the cells. For example, copy the resulting value of a formula without copying the formula, or copy only the formula.
When you move or copy a cell, Excel moves or copies the cell, including formulas and their resulting values, cell formats, and comments.
You can move cells in Excel by drag and dropping or using the Cut and Paste commands.
Move cells by drag and dropping
-
Select the cells or range of cells that you want to move or copy.
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Point to the border of the selection.
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When the pointer becomes a move pointer
, drag the cell or range of cells to another location.
Move cells by using Cut and Paste
-
Select a cell or a cell range.
-
Select Home > Cut
or press Ctrl + X. -
Select a cell where you want to move the data.
-
Select Home > Paste
or press Ctrl + V.
Copy cells in your worksheet using the Copy and Paste commands.
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Select the cell or range of cells.
-
Select Copy or press Ctrl + C.
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Select Paste or press Ctrl + V.
Move or copy cells
-
Select the cells that you want to move or copy.
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On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, do one of the following:
-
To move cells, click Cut
. Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+X.
-
To copy cells, click Copy
. Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+C.
-
-
Select the upper-left cell of the paste area.
Tip: To move or copy a selection to a different worksheet or workbook, click another worksheet tab or switch to another workbook, and then select the upper-left cell of the paste area.
-
On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Paste
. Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+V.
Notes:
-
Excel displays an animated moving border around cells that were cut or copied. To cancel a moving border, press Esc.
-
Excel replaces existing data in the paste area when you cut and paste cells to move them.
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To choose specific options when you paste cells, you can click the arrow below Paste
, and then click the option that you want. For example, you can click Paste Special or Picture. -
By default, Excel displays the Paste Options button on the worksheet to give you special options when you paste cells, such as Keep Source Formatting. If you don't want to display this button every time that you paste cells, you can turn this option off. Click the File tab, and then click Options. In the Advanced category, under Cut, Copy, and Paste, clear the Show Paste Options button when content is pasted check box.
Move or copy cells by using a mouse
By default, drag-and-drop editing is turned on so that you can use the mouse to move and copy cells.
-
Select the cells or range of cells that you want to move or copy.
-
Do one of the following:
-
To move a cell or range of cells, point to the border of the selection. When the pointer becomes a move pointer
, drag the cell or range of cells to another location. -
To copy a cell or range of cells, hold down Ctrl while you point to the border of the selection. When the pointer becomes a copy pointer
, drag the cell or range of cells to another location.
-
Note: Excel replaces existing data in the paste area when you move cells.
When you copy cells, cell references automatically adjust. But, when you move cells, cell references are not adjusted, and the contents of those cells and of any cells that point to them may be displayed as reference errors. In this case, you have to adjust the references manually.
If the selected copy area includes hidden cells, rows, or columns, Excel copies them. You may have to unhide data temporarily you don't want to include when you copy information.
Insert moved or copied cells between existing cells
-
Select the cell or range of cells that contains the data that you want to move or copy.
-
On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, do one of the following:
-
To move the selection, click Cut
. Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+X.
-
To copy the selection, click Copy
. Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+C.
-
-
Right-click the upper-left cell of the paste area, and then click Insert Cut Cells or Insert Copied Cells.
Tip To move or copy a selection to a different worksheet or workbook, click another worksheet tab or switch to another workbook, and then select the upper-left cell of the paste area.
-
In the Insert Paste dialog box, click the direction in which you want to shift the surrounding cells.
Note If you insert whole rows or columns, the surrounding rows and columns are shifted down and to the left.
Copy visible cells only
If some cells, rows, or columns on the worksheet are not displayed, you have the option of copying all cells or only the visible cells. For example, you can choose to copy only the displayed summary data on an outlined worksheet.
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Select the cells that you want to copy.
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On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select, and then click Go To Special.
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Under Select, click Visible cells only, and then click OK.
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On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Copy
. Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+C.
-
Select the upper-left cell of the paste area.
Tip: To move or copy a selection to a different worksheet or workbook, click another worksheet tab or switch to another workbook, and then select the upper-left cell of the paste area.
-
On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Paste
. Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+V.
-
If you click the arrow below Paste
, you can choose from several paste options to apply to your selection.
Excel pastes the copied data into consecutive rows or columns. If the paste area contains hidden rows or columns, you might have to unhide the paste area to see all of the copied cells.
When you copy or paste hidden or filtered data to another application or another instance of Excel, only visible cells are copied.
Prevent copied blank cells from replacing data
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Select the range of cells that contains blank cells.
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On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Copy
. Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+C.
-
Select the upper-left cell of the paste area.
-
On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click the arrow below Paste
, and then click Paste Special. -
Select the Skip blanks check box.
Move or copy just the contents of a cell
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Double-click the cell that contains the data that you want to move or copy.
Note By default, you can edit and select cell data directly in the cell by double-clicking it, but you can also edit and select cell data in the formula bar.
-
In the cell, select the characters that you want to move or copy.
How to select characters in a cell
To select the contents of a cell
Do this
In the cell
Double-click the cell, and then drag across the contents of the cell that you want to select.
In the formula bar
Click the cell, and then drag across the contents of the cell that you want to select in the formula bar.
By using the keyboard
Press F2 to edit the cell, use the arrow keys to position the cursor, and then press Shift+Arrow key to select the contents.
-
On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, do one of the following:
-
To move the selection, click Cut
. Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+X.
-
To copy the selection, click Copy
.Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+C.
-
-
In the cell, click where you want to paste the characters, or double-click another cell to move or copy the data.
-
On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Paste
.Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+V.
-
Press ENTER.
Note: When you double-click a cell or press F2 to edit the active cell, the arrow keys work only within that cell. To use the arrow keys to move to another cell, first press Enter to complete your editing changes to the active cell.
Copy cell values, cell formats, or formulas only
When you paste copied data, you can do any of the following:
-
Paste only the cell formatting, such as font color or fill color (and not the contents of the cells).
-
Convert any formulas in the cell to the calculated values without overwriting the existing formatting.
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Paste only the formulas (and not the calculated values).
-
Select the cell or range of cells that contains the values, cell formats, or formulas that you want to copy.
-
On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Copy
. Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+C.
-
Select the upper-left cell of the paste area or the cell where you want to paste the value, cell format, or formula.
-
On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click the arrow below Paste
, and then do one of the following:-
To paste values only, click Values.
-
To paste cell formats only, click Formatting.
-
To paste formulas only, click Formulas.
Note: If the copied formulas contain relative cell references, Excel adjusts the references (and the relative parts of mixed cell references) in the duplicate formulas. For example, suppose that cell B8 contains the formula =SUM(B1:B7). If you copy the formula to cell C8, the duplicate formula refers to the corresponding cells in that column: =SUM(C1:C7). If the copied formulas contain absolute cell references, the references in the duplicate formulas are not changed. If you do not get the results that you want, you can also change the references in the original formulas to either relative or absolute cell references and then recopy the cells.
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Copy cell width settings
When you paste copied data, the pasted data uses the column width settings of the target cells. To correct the column widths so that they match the source cells, follow these steps.
-
Select the cells that you want to move or copy.
-
On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, do one of the following:
-
To move cells, click Cut
.Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+X.
-
To copy cells, click Copy
.Keyboard shortcut You can also press Ctrl+C.
-
-
Select the upper-left cell of the paste area.
Tip: To move or copy a selection to a different worksheet or workbook, click another worksheet tab or switch to another workbook, and then select the upper-left cell of the paste area.
-
On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click the arrow under Paste
, and then click Keep Source Column Widths.
Need more help?
You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community, get support in the Answers community, or suggest a new feature or improvement on Excel User Voice.
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