Copy and Paste is essential in daily computer use. If you copy and paste a lot, like most people, you can find yourself pasting the same information again and again. Excel’s Clipboard feature lists the items you've copied before and allow you to paste them whenever you need. In this article, we are going to show you how to use the Clipboard in Excel.
What is Clipboard
The Clipboard is a MS Office feature that allows you to copy up to 24 items. You can paste any of them at any time, and save yourself some time!
How to enable Clipboard
Clipboard can be found under its pane in Excel, as well as in other Office software. To open it for the first time;
- Activate the Home tab in the ribbon
- Click the tiny arrow icon in the Clipboard section
Once activated, you can select how the Clipboard is to be displayed moving forward.
Click the Options button in the Clipboard pane to see the available options.
| Option | Description |
| Show Office Clipboard Automatically | Display the Clipboard when copying items. |
| Show Office Clipboard When CTRL+C Pressed Twice | Display the Clipboard when you press CTRL+C twice. |
| Collect Without Showing Office Clipboard | Copy the items to the Clipboard without displaying the Clipboard task pane. |
| Show Office Clipboard Icon on Taskbar | Display the Clipboard icon in the status area of the system taskbar when the Clipboard is active. |
| Show Status Near Taskbar When Copying | Display the collected item message when copying items to the Clipboard. |
Click on the options to enable or disable them.
Using Clipboard in Excel
Clipboard lists copied items starting with the latest copied. This means that you will see the last item you've copied on the top of the list.
A nice feature is the icons which indicate the source of the copied item. Let’s see how you can paste values this way.
- To paste an item into your sheet, first, select the cell or range you want to fill.
- Double-click on the item in the Clipboard
That’s it! Alternatively, you can right-click the area or click the arrow icon of the corresponding item to open the context menu, and select Paste.
Pasting all values at once is also possible. Use the Paste All button above the copied item list.
Please note that the Clipboard can only preserve value and formatting. You will lose any formulas.
Removing an item from Clipboard
The last tip on how to use Clipboard in Excel article is about removing items from the Clipboard. If you want to remove copied items from the Clipboard manually, you have 2 options:
- Clear All button to remove all items
- Delete button in context menu for deleting them one-by-one
