"Paste Values" missing from Excel for Mac OS X

Question

The "Paste Values" option is not available when I click the down arrow next to the Paste icon in the ribbon. The only options available are shown here:

The "Paste Special" dialog does not help as it does not provide an option to Paste Values:

I also tried adding Past Values to the ribbon as follows: I went to Excel | Preferences, and in the Ribbons & Toolbar section I tried to add the "Paste Values" command to the Home section, but I got an error message:

Then I created a new group as directed, and added the "Paste Values" command to that new group:

That resulted in a new icon appearing on the ribbon:"

However, as you can see from the image above, the icon is greyed out and remains greyed out under all circumstances.

There must be a way to invoke the Paste Values command, since it clearly exists in Excel for Mac. But how?

Answer 1

It's called Pure Paste.

Answer 2

I figured out the problem: I had a utility running in the background that interjected itself into the copy/paste process, sucking out the contents of the clipboard as soon as I hit Cmd-C. When I shut down that utility, the Paste options reappeared in Excel:

Answer 3

What you copied my have been numerical digits but it isn't numerical values, it's text strings.

The Paste Options available are determined by what is on the clipboard which in turn is determined by the source being copied. Even if you could add the options to a custom group on the ribbon or to the QAT they would not be active if the copied content isn't actual values.

Answer 4

Nope. What I copied was a cell that contained the formula "=2+3" which was displayed in the cell as "5" and was definitely a numerical value. I've also tried copying cells that contain more sophisticated formulas with the same problem.

Answer 5

That will do it... Would you mind identifying the utility for the benefit of other users?