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Clearing Clipboard in Excel 2016

Anonymous
2017-07-01T06:08:10+00:00

Hello,

I am currently using both Excel 2010 at work, and using Excel 2016 at home, and I had a question about the difference between the way the clipboard behaves in the two versions.

In Excel 2010, when I copy a cell, I can seemingly clear the clipboard by doing some kind of calculation, typing in a cell, inserting cells, etc. I am not entirely sure if the clipboard is entirely "clear", however I do know that if I say, copy a cell and then hit F2 and then Enter, then I cannot paste that copied cell again without going back to the cell and copying it again.

In Excel 2016, when I copy a cell, I cannot figure out a way to clear the clipboard besides manually pulling up the clipboard and clearing it out.

Then main issue I am having with this is when using the hot keys to insert a column / row (CTRL + SHIFT + "+"). When I have an item copied, then instead of an "insert" function, it is rather a "paste" function. This means that If I were to insert a column or a row, then it would try to paste that copied cell into every cell in that column / row, rather than insert a blank column / row, which is really what I was trying to do.

I have become somewhat dependent on hot keys, so this would be a problem for me, as I often work with large files, and inserting some million+ cells into these files would take a very long time (even just into say, ten cells sometimes take a while, with these files, or just with my computer).

What is the difference between the two programs that leaves the cell copied and "highlighted"? Is there some option in Excel 2016 that I can re-enable this way to clear the clipboard? So I can just hit F2 and clear it out, rather than manually go into the clipboard?

Having this ability would be very helpful again, as I am having many issues just doing some minor work on my computer at home with Excel 2016 instead of 2010.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-07-05T19:55:38+00:00

    You can press Esc.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-07-03T23:53:13+00:00

    Hello and thank you for the response,

    Unfortunately, this does not address my problems. I know how to empty the clipboard, but I was specifically looking for a hot key or shortcut to do so without having to open the clipboard task pane.

    The other thing I was having problems with is the shortcut for the insert dialog (Ctrl+Shift+Plus (+)). When I have nothing on my clipboard, and I use that shortcut, it opens the normal insert dialog. However, when I have something on my clipboard, instead of opening the insert dialog, it rather opens the "insert paste" dialog.

    So my issue is when I have something on my clipboard, I cannot insert a new blank column or row without opening the clipboard task pane and clearing it manually, for which there is no hotkey or shortcut (that I could find in either of those links).

    I was hoping to find some kind of setting that would make excel 2016 behave the same way that excel 2010 did in regards to the clipboard. That way the clipboard would clear when doing a variety of actions rather than only clearing when doing this one very specific and manual thing. Either that, or find some way to have the insert dialog shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+Plus (+)) to actually bring up the insert dialog rather than the insert paste dialog.

    I hope I have explained everything clearly, and thank you again for the response.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-07-05T06:30:51+00:00

    We have replicated the situation on our end and as it seems the shortcuts in Excel 2016 are already changed from 2010. Since this would be by design, we would appreciate any feedback you would like to send to our developer and for you to be able to send your ideas and suggestions, kindly click on this link Welcome to Excel's Suggestions Box to share your thoughts to our developers.

    Regards.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-07-01T09:18:44+00:00

    Hi,

    There are several improvements when it comes to the shortcut keys that you can use in Excel 2016 compared to the shortcut keys from Excel 2010. You would be able to see the details by checking this link Excel keyboard shortcuts and function keys for Windows. Also for clearing the clipboard, you check this link Clear the clipboard for details on how you can empty the clipboard to avoid getting an error that your clipboard is full.

    Hope this helps and if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

    Regards.

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