Master Excel Paste Special Shortcuts for Efficient Work

Excel’s Paste Special feature allows you to paste only specific elements of copied cells like values, formulas or formats. Learning the paste special shortcuts can help you work more efficiently in Excel.

What is Paste Special?

The standard copy and paste commands in Excel (CTRL+C to copy CTRL+V to paste) allow you to duplicate cell contents exactly. Paste Special gives you more control over what gets pasted.

For example, you may want to:

• Paste only cell values, not formulas
• Paste formatting but not values
• Perform calculations like multiply or divide when pasting
• Transpose rows and columns when pasting

Paste Special lets you do all this and more with just a couple of clicks or shortcut keys.

Why Use Paste Special Shortcuts?

Paste Special shortcuts speed up common Excel tasks like:

• Converting formulas to values by pasting only values
• Copying formatting without values
• Transposing data quickly
• Multiplying or dividing copied data during paste

Instead of clicking through multiple menus, you can get the job done with a couple of keystrokes. This saves time, especially when repeating the same task across many cells or worksheets.

Learning a few essential paste special shortcuts will boost your Excel productivity.

How to Access Paste Special

There are three ways to access Paste Special in Excel:

1. Ribbon Menu

Click the Home tab > Paste > Paste Special

2. Right-click Menu

Right-click the destination cell and select Paste Special

3. Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl + Alt + V (Excel 2007 and newer)
• Alt + E + S (all Excel versions)

Keyboard shortcuts are the fastest method.

Paste Special Options

The Paste Special dialog box shows all available paste options. Here are some of the most useful ones:

Values

Pastes only the calculated values and not formulas

Formulas

Pastes only the formulas and not values

Formats

Pastes only formatting like font, borders, shading

Comments

Pastes only cell comments

Validation

Pastes data validation rules

Transpose

Switches rows and columns

Multiply

Multiplies copied data by cell values

Divide

Divides copied data by cell values

Top Paste Special Shortcut Keys

Here are the most common Paste Special shortcuts:

Learn these keys and you’ll be able to use Paste Special like a pro.

Examples of Paste Special Shortcuts

Here are some examples of how Paste Special shortcuts can help with common Excel tasks:

Convert Formulas to Values

To replace formulas with calculated values:

1. Copy the cells with formulas
2. Paste special values only (Ctrl + Alt + V, V)

This removes the underlying formulas and keeps just the values.

Copy Formatting

To copy formatting without values:

1. Copy the cells with desired formatting
2. Paste special formats only (Ctrl + Alt + V, T)

This pastes the formatting like fonts, colors, and borders to new cells.

Transpose Columns and Rows

To quickly switch rows and columns:

1. Copy the data range
2. Paste special transpose (Ctrl + Alt + V, E)

Multiply Data During Paste

To multiply copied values when pasting:

1. Copy the numbers
2. Paste special multiply (Ctrl + Alt + V, M)

This multiplies the copied data by the destination cell values.

Divide Data During Paste

To divide copied values when pasting:

1. Copy the numbers
2. Paste special divide (Ctrl + Alt + V, D)

This divides the copied data by the destination cell values.

More Examples of Paste Special Use

Here are a few other examples of how Paste Special can help with Excel tasks:

• Copy a column’s width to multiple columns
• Remove hyperlinks by multiplying them by 1
• Add, subtract, multiply or divide cells without formulas
• Extract and copy comments from cells
• Copy data validation rules to new cells
• Keep or discard formatting during paste

Take time to experiment with Paste Special options to find more uses.

Tips for Using Paste Special Efficiently

Here are some tips to use Paste Special like a pro:

• Learn the most useful paste special shortcuts like values, transpose, multiply.

• When forgetting a shortcut, check Paste Special dialog – the underline shows the key.

• Combine paste special with absolute references to copy specific cell aspects.

• If paste option missing, ensure it’s enabled in Excel Options.

• Disable add-ins if paste special not working to identify conflicts.

• Use shortcut keys instead of clicking Paste Special dialog each time.

• Create your own ribbon button or macro for frequent paste special uses.

Mastering Paste Special shortcuts unlocks Excel’s full potential for efficient copy-pasting. Options like values, transpose, multiply, and divide allow you to wrangle data faster.

Learn the top 5-6 paste special keys today. With a little practice, these shortcuts will become second nature and speed up your daily Excel work.

So next time you need to copy just formulas or switch rows and columns, don’t click through menus. Use Paste Special shortcuts to do it with a couple of keystrokes!