Paste data and create a chart in Excel

In Excel, there are various options for pasting data and charts from the clipboard into your worksheet. The pasting options allow you to control how the pasted content is formatted. You can choose whether to preserve the original formatting or to adapt the appearance to the template where you are inserting the data or chart. By understanding the pasting options, you can also influence whether the pasted content can be edited and whether it should retain any formulas.

It is important to be careful with how you paste data from the clipboard. Incorrect pasting of clipboard data can cause errors in your calculations and analyses. For example, choosing the wrong pasting option for data containing formulas and cell links can disrupt the links and cause your formulas to not work correctly.

Pasting Data in Excel

1. When you have copied text from a workbook, you can paste it in various ways. You can either right-click in the cell where you want to paste the content, or click on the Clipboard/Paste button. The button is located on the left side of the menu, under Home. Click on the downward arrow next to the button to see different pasting options. The pasting options appear in a small box just below the button.
2. The first option is to paste using Paste. This is the basic pasting function. When you use Paste, the content of the clipboard is pasted into the selected cell while preserving the original formatting if possible. With this option, you are using the destination theme.
3. The second option is Values. This option removes any formatting and pastes only the numeric values. It is useful if you want to remove formatting or formulas from the data, and instead format the content from scratch.
4. With the Formulas option, you paste the content without formatting but retain any existing formulas.
5. Through the fourth pasting option, Formatting, the formatting from the source cell is applied to the destination cell. All character formatting (such as font and font size) as well as cell formatting (such as borders and background color) are pasted in the same way as from the file where you copied the content.

Pasting Charts in Excel

1. If you copy a chart, the pasting options will be slightly different from pasting text and numerical content. You can either right-click in the cell where you want to paste the content, or click on the Clipboard/Paste button. The button is located on the left side of the menu, under Home. Click on the downward arrow next to the button to see different pasting options. The pasting options appear in a small box just below the button.
2. The first pasting option is Use destination theme. With this option, a link is created to the workbook where the content was copied from. The appearance of the chart is adjusted to the theme in the worksheet where you are pasting the chart.
3. The second option is Keep source formatting. A link is created to the workbook where the chart was copied from. The chart retains the exact appearance as in the source where the chart was copied from.
4. The third, and final, option is Picture. This pasting option preserves the appearance of the chart and prevents the user from making changes or updates within the chart.