When copying word document content to an excel spreadsheet how many paste options are available

By David Sarokin Updated August 13, 2018

Copying material from the internet into your Excel spreadsheet can be easy. Or pretty difficult. It all depends on what exactly you're trying to copy and how you would like it to appear in your spreadsheet. If you want to copy a link or copy some text, the process is pretty straightforward. If you have an image to transfer, one you save from the net, say, it can be simple if you're lucky, but can also get a bit complicated. Copying data tables from the internet to Excel can be the trickiest of all, but it can be done!

Simply highlight the text you want to want to copy from the internet and type Ctrl+C to copy it into your clipboard. Then use the Ctrl+V command to paste the text into a cell of your choosing in your Excel spreadsheet. The pasted text will retain the formatting from the website. To paste plain text instead, first paste it into Notepad or a similar text editor, then copy and paste it again into Excel.

You can also use the Paste Special option in Word to remove any formatting from text.

To copy a hyperlinked web address from the internet, treat it just like text by highlighting it, copying it and pasting directly into Excel. It will display as the text from the webpage, with the underlying URL active. Alternatively, you can right-click the link to open an options menu, and select Copy link address to save and paste only the URL, without including the visible text.

You can easily copy and paste many images into Excel, especially image files that have a jpg file extension. Once pasted, you can resize the image by clicking on it, grabbing a corner with your cursor, and dragging it to a larger or smaller size.

For images that don't respond to a simple copy and paste, click on the Insert menu in Excel, select Illustrations, and from the Illustrations pull-down, select the option that best suits your circumstances. For example, you might insert an image from a file you saved or an image directly from an online source.

One of the most flexible options in Excel under Insert/Illustrations is Screenshot. You can take a screenshot of any image using the print screen key on your keyboard (usually labeled as PrtSc or PrtScrn). If you're on a Mac, you can use the print screen function by executing the following command: Command+Ctrl+Shift+3. Once the image is saved, use the Screenshot option to insert it to your spreadsheet.

The Screenshot option is a particularly good method for copying sections of a PDF document that you want to add to your spreadsheet.

You have three options for copying tabular data from the internet into Excel. Try them in order:

• Direct copy and paste: Highlight the data you want to insert, copy it and paste it directly to your spreadsheet. With luck, the data will neatly arrange itself into rows and columns. If the paste option does not work, use the Undo command – Ctrl+Z on your keyboard – to remove it.
• Indirect copy and paste: Copy the data, paste it to Notepad to remove any formatting, then recopy it and paste it into Excel. You can also try Paste Special into Word, using a variety of the pasting options available, to see which one works best with a final paste into Excel.
• Use the Excel Data commands: Click Data on the Excel menu to open the Get & Transform Data box, and select From Web as your option. This will open a new options box where you can insert the URL of the page that you want to copy data from. Then select the table on the page you wish to copy and keep your fingers crossed that it works!
  

When downloading files from an online source, don't confuse your intent to save from the net with savefrom.net, which is a YouTube video downloader that sometimes shows up in search results.

Paste menu options (on the ribbon)

Select Home, select the clipboard icon (Paste) and pick the specific paste option you want. For example, to paste only formatting from the copied cell, select Formatting

Icon	Option name	What is pasted
	Paste	All cell contents.
	Keep Source Column Widths	Copied cell content along with its column width.
	Transpose	Reorients the content of copied cells when pasting. Data in rows is pasted into columns and vice versa.
	Formulas	Formula(s), without formatting or comments.
	Values	Formula results, without formatting or comments.
	Formatting	Only the formatting from the copied cells.
	Values & Source Formatting	Values and formatting from copied cells.
	Paste Link	Reference to the source cells instead of the copied cell contents.
	Picture	Copied image.
	Linked Picture	Copied image with a link to the original cells (if you make any changes to the original cells those changes are reflected in the pasted image).

Paste Special

To use options from the Paste Special box, select Home, select the clipboard icon (Paste), and select Paste Special.

Keyboard Shortcut: Press Ctrl+Alt+V.

In the Paste Special box, pick the attribute you want to paste.

Note: Depending on the type of data you copied and the Paste option you picked, some other options might be grayed out.

You can also specify a mathematical operation to apply to the copied data.

Note: Cell references are automatically adjusted when you cut (not copy) and paste formulas.

After you paste a copied formula, you should verify that all cell references are correct in the new location. The cell references may have changed based on the reference type (absolute, relative, or mixed) used in the formula.

 

For example, if you copy a formula in cell A1 and paste it two cells down and to the right (C3), cell references in the pasted formula will change as follows:

This reference:	Changes to:
$A$1 (absolute column and absolute row)	$A$1
A$1 (relative column and absolute row)	C$1
$A1 (absolute column and relative row)	$A3
A1 (relative column and relative row)	C3

If cell references in the formula don’t give you the result you want, try switching to different reference types:

1. Select the cell containing the formula.

2. In the formula bar

   
   , select the reference you want to change.

3. Press F4 to switch between the reference combinations, and choose the one you want.

For more information about cell references, see Overview of formulas.

When you copy in Excel for the web, you can pick paste options in the destination cells.

Select Home, select the clipboard icon, select Paste, and pick the specific paste option you want. For example, to paste only formatting from the copied cell, select Paste Formatting

Icon	Option name	What is pasted
	Paste	All cell contents.
	Paste Formulas	Formula(s), without formatting.
	Paste Values	Formula results, without formatting.
	Paste Formatting	Only the formatting from the copied cells.
	Paste Transpose	All cell content, but reorients the content when pasting. Data in rows is pasted into columns and vice versa.