Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V to copy/paste formats not working in Excel

Question

I have been using the Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V to copy/paste formats in Excel for years but they have stopped working. The computer beeps when I try them. There is no Customize Keyboard option in Excel either. Were these options removed?

Answer 1

Dear Michael Schuldenfrei

Good day!

I completely agree with you, this is indeed a great addition to the current functionality of Excel, thanks for pointing this out. Microsoft is constantly working to improve the functionality of its O365 products, and such suggestions are greatly appreciated. You can go tothe feedback community to create a new entry or vote for it.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Tin | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

Hi there. Since the very old days of Office and Windows itself, ctrl+c / ctrl+v was to "copy/ paste everything" whilst ctrl+shift+c/ ctrl+shift+v was to "copy/ paste formats". As Michael says, the former create a clipboard entry whilst the latter are stored separately and each can be applied multiple times (i.e. you can copy-paste an entire content to then later paste formats you had copied earlier). This was from back in the days when Office and Windows were actually best controlled through keyboards and you could "type" key sequences to follow through the menues. Then Microsoft went to move more towards mouse control and complicated multi-key commands, then it moved back to what we have today which is again more of a keystroke sequence type of control. The "old" shortcuts had been maintained throughout and, indeed, until very recently -it can only be a few days, on my version of Office- these have worked. So somebody must now have gone in and took them out of the code. That action must somewhere be documented within the updates. Can we please undo that??

Answer 3

Dear Michael Schuldenfrei

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. I am happy to help you

According to my search in the official documentation, I really didn't find the shortcut you mentioned: Keyboard shortcuts in Excel - Microsoft Support

I've also tested it, and if you use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V directly, it will paste the format by default, so if you want to choose the pasting method, you can try to use Ctrl+Alt+V：

I look forward to your reply. Thanks for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Tin | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 4

Thanks for the reply. I also can't find any reference to it in the docs, but unless I am going completely senile, this keyboard combination existed till recently. It certainly still exists and works as expected in Word and PowerPoint. So whether it was an undocumented feature, or a figment of my imagination, can we have it as a feature request?

Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V don't help here as the idea is to copy ONLY the format and not the cell contents.

These keyboard shortcuts to copy-paste ONLY formatting are better than the formatting brush because they "remember" the copied format and you can apply it again and again on different cells and ranges, even if you did other work on the spreadsheet.

Answer 5

As an alternative, you can add Paste Formatting to the Quick Access Toolbar. Go to File>Options>Quick Access Toolbar. Select All Commands in the dropdown at the top. Scroll down to Formatting (Paste Formatting). Select it, click Add in the center, and then OK. Anytime you want to paste the formatting, copy the cell or range, click on the location where you want to paste it, and click on this icon in the Quick Access Toolbar to paste only the formatting.

Another quick way is to use the Format Painter. It is especially useful if you want to copy the formatting from a single cell to a range of cells. Select the cell you want to copy the formatting, click on Format Painter in the Clipboard section of the Home ribbon, and click and drag the selection where you want to add the formatting. This can also be added to the Quick Access Toolbar if desired.