Copy and paste your data to move it around one worksheet or across multiple worksheets.
For small data sets or to quickly move some of your data around existing worksheets, you may want to use copy and paste. You can copy and paste single cells, ranges of cells, or entire rows or columns.
How to Copy and Paste Data
Using Keyboard Shortcuts
You can copy and paste data using the familiar keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + C (Copy) and Ctrl +V (Paste), or Command + C and Command + V for Mac. Select the data you want to copy and use the "copy" keyboard shortcut, then select the location where you want to paste the data and use the "paste" keyboard shortcut.
Using the Edit Menu
You can also copy and paste data via the Edit menu. First, select the data you wish to copy, open the Edit menu from the top menu bar, and select "Copy" (or "Cut") from the dropdown. Then, select the location where you want to paste the data and select "Paste" from the same dropdown.
Using Right Click
Alternatively, you can access the same copy and paste options by right clicking on your selected data and selecting "Copy" or "Cut" from the dropdown.
Using the Cut option will simultaneously remove the selected data from your worksheet and copy it to the clipboard.
Notes on Pasting
When copying and pasting, your cell formatting, data types, and formulas should be preserved. But, you might occasionally run into an error. If so, try these workarounds:
- If you copy and paste data within the same worksheet, all of the cell's formatting, data types, and formulas should be copied exactly, but try to copy the view or worksheet itself if you have trouble.
- If you copy from one Spreadsheet.com worksheet to a different Spreadsheet.com worksheet, make sure you use the Ctrl + C (Copy) and Ctrl +V (Paste) keyboard shortcuts. The cell formatting, data types, and formulas should be retained. You can even use paste values only, to paste the values from formulas. You can also create a copy of the worksheet and work with that copy.
- If you try to copy from outside of Spreadsheet.com (for example from Excel, Google Sheets, or a text file), most data, formatting, and formula outputs should persist. Data types too, may convert correctly.
If you encounter any trouble, you can overcome any copy and paste errors by importing your spreadsheet.
For large data sets, importing or copying spreadsheets is often the easier way to bring data in. For specific insights into importing, check out our full set of import articles or our Tips for Importing Spreadsheets article.