Clipboard: what is it? Clipboard - what does it mean?

Every PC user is familiar with the combination Ctrl-C keys– Ctrl-V. Copy paste.

It allows you to quickly transfer large amounts of information from one place to another without the need to create new files or documents.

Thanks to this, working on a PC is greatly simplified - there is no need to retype texts, and you do not need to search for and download files again.

As with any workflow, even such a small and simple action requires a program and a file. At the moment when data is prepared for transfer, it ends up in a special place called the clipboard.

What it is

What is a clipboard? This term refers to a special program that is permanently open in the system in the background.

Its main function is to transfer information to separate plot memory for some time.

It is worth considering that if the user copies other data again, then the data that was there before is automatically erased. The same thing happens when you restart or turn off your PC.

There are programs that allow you to expand the capabilities of your native temporary data storage.

For example, Ditto, which allows you to view the history of copied data and interact with the database in a more comfortable way.

It is worth saying that temporary data storage is available, in addition to the PC, also in portable devices– phones, mobile computers.

The principle of its operation in the OS Android or iOS absolutely the same as in laptops and desktop PCs.

Where is the buffering function located?

On the computer

Like any system data, the temporary data storage file is located on the system disk in the folder system32.

In it you need to find a file with the name clipbrd.exe, clicking on which will open the clipboard program.

But it’s much easier to launch it from the start menu using the “Run” button. In the window that appears, you need to enter the name of the file and then the desired window will also open.

It will contain text copied earlier or a file of any format. In this case, its information will be encoded and displayed using text.

This method only works for PCs running Windows XP.

On Windows 7, the default data store is not available and cannot be opened. In the system it is located under the file name clip.exe.

Third parties are required to access it auxiliary programs– for example, Clipboard Viewer or Clipslim.

Utilities will allow you to easily manipulate and interact with it. The same applies to Windows 8.

On the phone

On Android phones temporary information storage is located in random access memory and also exists as a separate program.

However, it is impossible to enter it; you can only view its history.

1. On new phone models, the temporary data storage has the ability to save more than one copied text.

In order to get into it, you need to enter any text editor, press your finger on the field where you want to copy the text, and wait until the “Clipboard” box appears in the corner.

Click on it, and a list of items placed there will open on the screen. Lately phrases.

2. In addition, you can use the Clipboard Mamager mobile application, with which you can also see the history of phrases placed there.

In addition, you need to use it to clean the data warehouse, as well as interact with it in different ways.

Clearing the clipboard

The specificity of the buffer is that it places a certain amount of data in RAM, which is subsequently transferred to another medium or address.

Therefore, on weak or overloaded PCs, situations often arise when, after copying a particularly large file, the system begins to slow down.

In this case, the only way out is to clear the temporary information storage.

On the computer

1. In fact, the surest method to clean out your data storage is to restart or turn off your computer. Then all data from RAM will be erased automatically.

Unfortunately, other unsaved information will also be lost, so this method not very good.

2. In the Windows XP operating system, you can go to the utility itself that manages the clipboard, and there click on the “Clear” button. The window will become white and clean, and all data from RAM will be erased.

3. The temporary storage of information is cleared if you simply copy any one letter. The previous information will be deleted, and the new one will not weigh as much - the device will stop slowing down.

4. Again - you can use third-party additional utilities. Clipboard Viewer has a feature that allows you to clear temporary data storage.

On the phone

Similar problems with brakes occur on phones. IN in this case Their capabilities for cleaning temporary storage are more modest.

2. Copying one letter. The information storage will be erased a large number of data and replace it with less.

This is especially convenient in new phone models also because previous copy will remain in history and can be slowly restored.

3. Usage third party programs. Mobile app Clipboard Manager allows you to interact with the clipboard on your Android device, including clearing it.

In addition, the save history will be saved, which means it can be retrieved later.

That's all that can be said about temporary data storage.

This one would seem small program, makes working on a PC more convenient and faster, helping to solve many problems of working with information.

What utilities do you use to work with the clipboard?

In Windows, Mac OS or Android operating systems, computer and Internet users were given the opportunity to work simultaneously in several windows with several programs.

Users were immediately tempted to transfer data from some programs (from some windows) to other programs (to other windows).

Indeed, you have, for example, suitable text in Notepad format (say, with the .txt extension), and this text is quite suitable for inserting into the presentation you are preparing (say, in PowerPoint format). Shouldn’t we reprint it again?! The text is already there, but in a different format and in a different window, in a different program. I just want to somehow automatically transfer it to another window, to another program.

Or, for example, a PC user took a photo and saved it in a format (for example, with the .jpeg extension). And now you need to insert this photo as a drawing, for example, in Word text to “decorate” the text, make a “picture book”. There are many similar examples when there is a desire to transfer data from one program (from one window) to another program (to another window). And if there are desires, then there must be corresponding opportunities.

How to make it so that you can transfer absolutely any data from one program to another: texts, pictures, graphics, drawings, diagrams and even video or audio, etc.?

What is Clipboard

Operating system developers have come up with quite original way, which can be considered universal, suitable for transmitting almost any data.

It is enough in one program to select the data to be transferred to another program and copy it to a certain special area. Then, in another program where the data is to be transferred, you need to place the cursor in the place where the data is to be placed, and after that, carry out the procedure for pasting the data from this special area that was previously copied there.

By the way, the copy-paste procedure also works within one window, one program, if data needs to be copied from one place and pasted into another place in a text, presentation, etc.

Due to the apparent simplicity of such a procedure for transferring data from one window to another, this procedure received the slang name “copy-paste”. The word “copy-paste” comes from two English words “copy-paste”, which means “copy-paste”.

The special area into which data is first copied and then restored (pasted) from there is called the “clipboard” (in English “clipboard”, also translated as “clipboard”).

It’s a great idea: the user doesn’t even have to think about what the clipboard is, how the selected data gets there, and then how this data is restored from the clipboard in the window of another program or in another place in the same program.

The operations “Copy” or “Cut”, and then “Paste” and the clipboard associated with these operations are standard features operating systemsWindowsMacOS or Android.

How the clipboard works in Windows, Mac, Android

Typically, information gets to the clipboard when the user uses one of two operations:

1. “Copy” (Ctrl+C) or
2. “Cut” (Ctrl+X).

And the user retrieves information from the clipboard using the “Paste” operation (Ctrl+V).

Thus, the clipboard is an intermediate storage of information that occupies some part of the computer's RAM. designed for temporary storage of information.

The standard clipboard, as part of RAM, is capable of clearing itself, for example, when the computer is turned off or when new information is placed there.

If you do it on Windows using the PrtScr button (short for Print Screen), then it also goes to the clipboard. And you can extract a screenshot from the clipboard using the “Paste” operation.

Clipboard operations "Copy" and "Paste"

Many programs have in their arsenal of capabilities menu items and buttons “Copy”, as well as menu items and buttons “Paste”.

As a rule, due to the frequent use of these items, these menu items are most often located in the main program menu itself, and the “Copy” and “Paste” buttons can have quite a big size and can be clearly visible (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Buttons “Paste” and “Copy” in the program Microsoft Word

1 in Fig. 1 – the “Copy” button in the Word program, which will be active only when the text (or picture) is selected, and, therefore, there is an object to copy and place it on the clipboard,
2 in Fig. 1 – “Insert” button.

Many context menus that appear when you click right click mouse (RMB) on a selected fragment of a document (text, picture, etc.) have the “Copy” and “Paste” options, since these are frequently used actions by PC users when working with programs (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Points context menu Copy and Paste Options in Microsoft Word

The “Copy” and “Paste” buttons (1 and 2 in Fig. 1) are replaced by context menu items with exactly the same names (1 and 2 in Fig. 2).

Is it that simple?

Most often, the user uses copy and paste to transfer data from one place in a program to another place or from one program to another, without even thinking about how it is done. And in almost 100% of cases, an adequate result is obtained: data from one program is transferred without distortion to another program, or from one place they move to another within the same program.

But there may be exceptions. And then the use of the clipboard can lead to data corruption if the provided capabilities are not used correctly. This happens rarely, but it can still happen. Let's look at examples of “distortion” of data, or more precisely, examples of incorrect work with the clipboard.

Clipboard or deception buffer using Excel as an example

Users of Excel spreadsheets know that Excel cells can store not only numbers, but also formulas for calculating them. And in the cells themselves, the data obtained as a result of calculations using these formulas is displayed. Now imagine that we place the cursor in such a cell with a formula, click “Copy” and place the data on the clipboard.

Then place the cursor in another free cell and click “Insert”. What should go into this free cell? The formula that was in the previous cell from which we copied data to the clipboard? Or the number that was in the previous cell? If it is a formula, then the insertion result will be the same (the inserted formula will work, and a number will appear in the cell that is the result of the calculation using this formula). If a number is inserted, then the result of the insertion is a number completely equal to the one that was in the cell from which the copying was made.

It is clear that as a result, in the new cell we can see either one number (if a formula was inserted) or another (if a number was inserted). This means that we can get both “correct” and “wrong” results. That is, we will either receive an accurate answer from the clipboard, or we will receive an inaccurate answer from the “deception buffer”!

How not to make a mistake? You need to know WHAT is pasted from the clipboard by default in a particular program. Just to know. To do this, you need to read about it somewhere (in the program help, for example), or experiment on your own. If you don’t know, you can get incorrect data, relying not on the capabilities of the clipboard, but on the “deception buffer”!

In the example given with Excel experienced users This program knows that by default a formula is inserted into a cell, not a value. If you still need to paste a value from the clipboard, and not a formula, then you need to use additional menu insert, and select “Insert value” from it (number 1 in Fig. 3) or use “Special insert” (number 2 in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4):

Rice. 3. Inserting a value into new cell(instead of a formula) (number 1) or using “Insert Special” (number 2)

If you click on the “Special Paste” option (2 in Fig. 3), then in the window that opens with the same name we will get many insert options:

Rice. 4. Excel's Paste Special window to select options for pasting copied data from the clipboard into a new cell.

As we see in Fig. 4, you can insert not only values ​​or formulas into a new cell, but also data formats, formulas and values ​​along with formats, etc., as well as notes on cells, conditions on values, and including adding additional operations for data processing.

This is how you can, on the one hand, become completely confused with what seems to be a simple buffer exchange with which regular users Most often, two operations are performed: “Copy” and “Paste”. On the other hand, you can get many additional features, if these features are provided in the program that uses the clipboard.

About the Microsoft Office clipboard, including 2010, 2013, 2016

Expanded, advanced clipboard management features are offered in Microsoft package(abbreviated MS) Office. This can be done with the Clipboard program built into the MS Office package. (This package includes a set of programs: text Word editor, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, bases Access data and others).

Using the clipboard in MS Office, you can copy and paste not just once or over and over again, but repeatedly.

The clipboard can store up to 24 copies of text and graphic elements, which in turn can then be inserted all at once, either one at a time or in another way.

Access to the clipboard capabilities, which is carried out from any program in the MS Office package, is shown below in Fig. 5 using Excel as an example.

From one clipboard you can paste data into different programs office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. Simply put, you can copy a picture once, after which it will be placed in the MS Office Clipboard program. Then this picture can be placed from the clipboard in both the Word editor and Excel spreadsheet, and into a PowerPoint presentation.

Rice. 5. Clipboard in Excel

More information about the clipboard for Office 2010, in particular, about turning it on and off, about setting its visibility, information from the official website in Russian:

Official Microsoft website in Russian about the clipboard for Office 2013 and 2016:

The Clipboard program in MS Office is also called the clipboard manager. There are others special programs for operating systems, called clipboard managers, which are designed to extend the capabilities of the standard clipboard.

Returning to the standard capabilities of the regular clipboard, which is found in Windows, Mac OS or Android, we note that it stores the latest data that was copied there.

If you copy to the clipboard several times in a row, you will only be able to paste the data that was last copied there, and all previous copies are automatically erased from the standard clipboard.

Thus, if you need to repeatedly use the standard clipboard, you need to immediately use the “Paste” operation after each “Copy” operation. Copy multiple times in a row, and then paste multiple times in a row (even if it seems more convenient option work), using standard features clipboard, no.

Clipboard in Word

Special inserts are found not only in rather complex and multifunctional program Excel, but also in Word (Fig. 6), as well as in many other programs. And you need to remember this if you actively use the clipboard, so that it does not ultimately turn into a “buffer of deception.”

Rice. 6.1. Insert menu in Word

If you open the “Paste” menu in Word (1 in Fig. 6.1), and then click on the “Paste Special” option (2 in Fig. 6.1), you can see the offered options for pasting from the clipboard:

Rice. 6.2. Paste Special from the Clipboard in Microsoft Word

You can paste data directly, without the clipboard

And I would also like to note the following. You can paste data into programs not only from the clipboard. Pictures can be inserted from files, texts can also be inserted from files, graphs and diagrams can be inserted into tables, and much, much more. The clipboard has nothing to do with it! And the “Insert” menu in the same Word (Fig. 7) also does not have the slightest relation to pasting data from the clipboard, although this menu is written identically with the name of the “Paste” button, intended for pasting from the clipboard.

Rice. 7. Insert Menu Microsoft programs Word NOT related to pasting from clipboard

In Fig. Figure 7 shows that in Word the Insert menu, which is NOT associated with the clipboard, includes:

• pages,
• tables,
• drawing,
• clip,
• diagrams,
• headers,
• inscriptions,
• symbols
• etc.

Thus, using the clipboard, a PC user can paste data that was previously copied there from another place in the same program or from another program. And this has nothing to do with other possibilities for inserting other data, of which, as we see, there are also many.

What does “The clipboard contains a large fragment” mean?

After finishing working with programs, the last copied data remains in the clipboard. Even after the data has been copied from, this data will remain on the clipboard and can be used to paste into other programs (in other windows).

If this data on the clipboard takes up a lot of space (for example, copied large text, three-dimensional picture, etc.), then when exiting the program, a warning may be issued that a large amount of information remains on the clipboard (Fig. 8).

Rice. 8. Warning that there is a large amount of information left on the clipboard.

In this case, the user must decide whether to leave this data or whether the clipboard should be “cleared” simultaneously with closing the program from which this data was copied.

1 in Fig. 8 – if you click “Yes”, then the data will remain on the clipboard, Word program will be closed.
2 in Fig. 8 – click on “No”, the data will be deleted from the clipboard, Word will be closed.
3 in Fig. 8 – if you click “Cancel”, then nothing will change, because the user has changed his mind about clearing the clipboard and closing Word.

The decision which of the three buttons to choose is up to the user.

If you delete data from the clipboard, it can no longer be pasted into other programs. And if you leave it, it will be possible to paste them, but storing a large amount of data on the clipboard will require a lot of PC resources. Here the user must decide what he wants: save data to the clipboard or save RAM resources on his device for further work.

Do not forget! You can copy texts, pictures and other information from the Internet without providing a link to the source only for personal use. If the copied information is re-posted on the Internet WITHOUT indicating a link to the source of the information, then this is a violation of copyright and may lead to unpleasant consequences.

We have to work with computers every day, so, voluntarily or unwittingly, we learn various nuances and details that we were not even aware of before. One of these "hidden" features is the Clipboard. What does Clipboard mean?? I advise you to read some more informative news, for example, how to understand the word Preventive, what is Primary, what does Privacy mean? This is a temporary storage of information that you have saved (by highlighting and clicking copy), and this is the text that resides on the clipboard. In order to paste it into another document, you need " click"right-click in the desired location and find the item in the drop-down menu" insert".
At the same time, you must remember that text(or other information) located on the clipboard will be erased from it after restarting or turning off the computer.

You do not have easy access to the clipboard; in order to edit the data on it, you need to create text file, and paste the contents of your buffer into it. After that, you can do whatever you want with this text, edit it, check it for errors, and even rewrite it again. After all the manipulations, do not forget to save the changes made.

Clipboard- this is a temporary storage area for information copied in one place and intended for pasting into another file/location

This has been sorted out, but since phones have essentially become compact computers, question, What does Clipboard mean on your phone?, many inquisitive users ask.

Because, as I mentioned above, smartphone, this is the same computer, only small, then it also has its own clipboard in the phone.

Clipboard on your phone- this is a place of temporary storage, as well as movement of data between different applications or part of one application

Remember that you can only store one on the clipboard at a time. information, for example a text file, and if you copy new data to the buffer, the old one will simply disappear. It's sad, but as the smart French say Selyavi.

Temporary data, such as text, video, images, can be copied to the smartphone's clipboard, which the user can then use for his own purposes. For example, having copied the text once, you can paste it into required quantity SMS messages.

Just like with a computer, after a reboot or shutdown, all data stored in volatile memory disappears and cannot be restored.

To copy to buffer phone exchange, you need to hold your finger on the text that you want to copy, and after that 2 delimiters with different sides selected text. They will contain a number of icons, one of which allows you to “throw” the desired paragraph into the phone’s clipboard.
In the same way, you can paste the copied data into another text file by simply clicking on the screen and selecting the “paste” icon from the panel that appears. Nothing complicated, but much more tedious than big brother (PC).

The practical application of the benefits of the Clipboard tool is best demonstrated through examples.

You can use advanced clipboard features to improve your productivity in Excel when copying and pasting items. These are some of the most frequently used operations when working with Excel. Therefore, it is worth learning how to use them professionally. Moreover, it is not difficult.

Copying multiple items to the clipboard

First, let's demonstrate with an example how you can quickly fill out data in a table using the clipboard. To do this, create an initial plate as shown in the figure:

For quick filling cells using a buffer you need:

As you can see, you no longer have to copy every time you need to fill cells with duplicate values. It is very convenient and time-saving.

Excel Clipboard Management

The clipboard can contain up to 24 items. In Excel, it doesn’t matter what to copy: a table, a column, a row, the contents of one cell, or just text - all of these are separate elements, regardless of the volume of their information. When copying the 25th element, the first one is deleted automatically.

You can control the contents of the buffer. If there are unnecessary elements in it, remove them. To do this, right-click on extra element and select the "Delete" option. To completely clear the Excel clipboard, click on the “Clear All” button in the side window.

Information about the number of elements is displayed in the window title. There is also a button to close the side window of the “X” tool.

If the side window of the tool bothers you, but you want to continue filling it with elements, then do this:

It’s very convenient to work this way, especially when you need to copy data to other Excel sheets or other MS Office programs (for example, Word). Each program that is included in the MS Office package has a Clipboard tool. This means that in each of these programs you can call a buffer window for selective insertion of elements. This tool allows you to effectively organize simultaneous work with several documents.

Note. Moving data is carried out in the same way as copying. Only instead of the CTRL+C key combination, you should press CTRL+X, and instead of the “copy” options, you need to select the “cut” option.

The article describes the possibilities of using a buffer Windows exchange And Microsoft Office, as well as features of copying and pasting data into Excel. Understanding and correct use These operations can significantly speed up routine data processing operations.

Operating system clipboard

In terms information systems clipboard clipboard) is an area of ​​RAM that is publicly accessible to different applications. The operating system provides a low-level programming interface for moving data to and from the clipboard at the user's request. Correct application of this software interface is a standard for developing Windows applications. That is, any program must provide the user with the ability to use the clipboard when using the same keyboard shortcuts or menu items. Next we will talk about Windows, although, in principle, the description of the principle of operation of the clipboard is identical for any modern operating system personal computers or mobile devices.

Copy and paste are standard operations for all Windows applications. For this purpose, universal hotkey combinations are reserved, available in almost any program:

• Ctrl+c- copy (English) copy)
• Ctrl+x- cut (English) cut)
• Ctrl+v- insert (English) paste)

Keyboard shortcuts of similar functionality are also often mentioned: Ctrl+Ins – copy, Shift+Ins – paste, Shift+Del – cut. However, we do not recommend using these combinations, as some applications override their default behavior. For example, pressing Shift+Del in Windows Explorer Instead of cutting the moved file as expected, it will be deleted bypassing the trash. That is, instead of moving, permanent data loss may occur.

If you prefer to use a mouse instead of a keyboard, then standard fields Windows input applications typically support a context menu with copy, cut, and paste operations.

The copied text or other block of data can be pasted into another application, depending on the capabilities of the latter. For example, text copied in Notepad cannot then be pasted into a graphic paint editor. However, the same text typed in Word is successfully inserted into Paint as a bitmap. This possibility is realized on program level by moving data to the clipboard in multiple formats at the same time. If you type the word Example in bold in Word and then copy it, several blocks of information will appear on the clipboard:

Example	Text as a set of characters without formatting
	HTML formatted text
(\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\uc1 (\b Example)(\par ))	RTF formatted text
	Screen block bitmap

Now, if you try to paste data into Notepad, the program will select from the clipboard the only available information option - text without formatting. If you do the same in Paint, then the last area – the drawing – will be processed. The set of available formats for copying and pasting depends on the capabilities of the specific program. If the application supports multiple information formats (pictures, text, complex objects), then it allows you to select the insertion option. For example, in Microsoft Word this procedure is implemented through the menu item Special insert:

If you use regular data insertion, the most suitable format for this program will be automatically selected. Excel also supports inserting data into various formats according to the Word principle, if the information on the clipboard came from another application. If a range of cells was copied in the same application, then paste special is replaced by an internal Excel operation (separate pasting of values, formulas, formats, etc.), which does not use the operating system clipboard.

Some other applications also implement own procedures work based on copy and paste operations without using the clipboard. So, for example, in Explorer, the "copy" operation does not move the entire file to the Windows clipboard. Instead, only the link to that file is remembered and will be processed when the insert operation is performed.

Microsoft Office Clipboard

As noted above, the operating system is responsible for operations with the standard clipboard. One of the tasks in this case is the correct use of RAM. The operating system, in particular, takes care of timely cleaning of the clipboard area. In its current implementation, the standard Windows clipboard allows you to store only one block of copied information. When a new copy procedure is called, this block is preemptively cleared, and the memory area reserved for it becomes available for use as a clipboard.

To improve the ability to work with the user interface in Microsoft Office, starting with version 2000 (9.0), an expanded clipboard has been implemented with the ability to simultaneously store several (up to 24) copied blocks of information. The user is provided with an interface for selecting and inserting any of these blocks into any open Office application(Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, etc.). It might be more logical to implement similar functionality at the operating system level (Windows), although this would require changing standards for all applications. Now it turns out that multiple clipboards work as long as at least one Office application is open. If it is closed, then only the Windows clipboard with a single block of copied information becomes available.

The multiple clipboard interface in Office 2010 is opened and configured on the Home ribbon in the block of the same name (arrow in the lower right corner).

If we talk about the usefulness and convenience of working with multiple clipboards, there are different opinions. I personally never use this functionality– it’s easier to copy it again. But, most likely, this is a force of habit.

Copy and paste in Excel

As noted, Excel fully supports the Office clipboard, but it also supports native copy and paste operations without using the clipboard.

It should be noted here that reuse objects through copying and pasting is one of the determining factors for speeding up information processing when using Excel spreadsheets.

What actually happens in Excel when you click the copy button when you select a range of cells?

First, as in other Windows applications, a set of information is placed on the operating system's clipboard in several formats: plain text, rich text, bitmap etc. Thus, for example, you can use graphic editor and paste there screen display block of selected cells. If you paste the same block back into Excel, the picture will be inserted:

Secondly (and this is the main thing), when copying Excel performs an internal operation to work with cells spreadsheet. By pressing the Ctrl+C key combination, a context menu item or the copy button, the links to the selected cells. These cells can be great amount. They can be located in one rectangular range, or in several unrelated ranges (to select such ranges, hold down the Ctrl key while selecting with the mouse). Theoretically, it is possible to copy cells to different sheets(several sheets can also be selected by holding Ctrl keys on the sheet label), but these cells must be located at the same address, and subsequent insertion is also possible only on the same selected sheets. In practice, it is better to avoid copying and pasting on several sheets at the same time, since this operation is not very clear and often leads to data loss.

It is also possible to copy links between different files opened in the same Excel application. Typical situation causing misunderstanding on the part of the user is the processing of data in several simultaneously open applications Excel. When you try to copy data from one file to another, the program pastes the result only as formatted values ​​without formulas. It's not an error, just several at the same time open source software Excel occupy various areas memory and there cannot be any links between them. When copying and pasting in this case, only the Office clipboard is used. To correct the situation, open the files in one Excel application.

Once again, please note that when starting a copy operation, not data (text, formulas, formats) are written to the program memory, but only references to the addresses of the selected cells. For clarity, the Excel interface surrounds the copied cells with an animated border.

Once the ranges have been copied, the paste operation becomes available. Before doing this, you need to select one or more ranges or cells to receive data from the copied area.

Insertion is available as long as the user has not performed any action that changes the spreadsheet data. You can select cells and ranges, move between sheets and files. Also, the paste operation itself does not cancel the copy area. This allows you to copy cells multiple times in a row for different ranges. Any other user interface operations, such as data entry, grouping, sorting, formatting, will reset the previously copied link. You can forcefully reset the copy area by pressing the Esc key.

If the selected area of ​​the worksheet before pasting does not match the size of the copied area, Excel will try to spread the data multiple times or paste only part of the data. In some cases this may not be possible (for example, the copy and paste areas overlap), then the program displays an error message.

In addition to simple pasting, the copied range can be added to the sheet area with the borders expanding to the left or down through the “Paste copied cells” context menu item.

If you use the Office clipboard to paste data, data will be added with the loss of formulas, similar to the example with copying between different Excel applications.

By default, when calling the insert operation, all the attributes of the original range will be distributed to the selected range, namely: formula, format, value, note, conditions. Sometimes a complex description of the rules for copying formulas is given, since they seem to be automatically converted when the addresses of the destination range change. In fact, the formulas are copied in the R1C1 format and remain unchanged (you can check by switching the view Excel sheet in R1C1). Displaying in the usual A1 format simply transforms the formula into new coordinates.

A cut operation, unlike a copy operation, clears the original range after the paste occurs. If the insertion has not been completed, then no action will be taken.

Special insert

Another important feature Copying Excel ranges is a separate paste of the attributes of the copied ranges. In particular, you can paste only the comments from the copied range into a new location on the worksheet. The set of attributes available for separate copying is displayed in the dialog special insert:

• meaning
• format
• formula
• note
• conditions on the value (data verification)

IN different versions Excel's set of Paste Special elements is slightly different. But regardless of this, you can use the repeated attribute insertion operation. For example, to insert formulas with notes, but without formats, you need to copy the source range once, and then perform two special pastes sequentially on the same range: pasting only the formulas, then pasting only the notes.

The Paste Special dialog also contains a block of switches that allows you to perform mathematical operations on a range of data: add, subtract, multiply and divide. The operation will be applied to the range selected before insertion. And the copied cells will contain addition, subtraction, multiplication or division coefficients. In most cases, a single coefficient is used for the entire range. For example, you can copy the number 10, then select the range and select paste special with multiplication - as a result, all data in the selected range will be multiplied by 10. If the cells contained a formula, then it will be converted according to mathematical rules:

Another option for paste special is transposition range. After performing this operation, the resulting range will be rotated by 90 degrees - data from the rows will fall into the columns and vice versa.

Dragging with the mouse

Beginners Excel users The fastest way to master copying data is by dragging and dropping cells. For this there is special index on the frame of the selected range. By the way, this feature can be disabled in general parameters Excel.

The operation of dragging cells with the mouse is in most cases analogous to copying and pasting for adjacent ranges of cells. From a technical point of view, the main difference is that dragging the mouse does not save any data on the clipboard. Excel only performs the internal paste procedure and then clears the copy source information. From point of view user interface distinctive feature Drag and drop is the ability to fill cells based on an automatically determined number series in the selected range. Many people think that Excel can only continue a sequentially increasing series by adding one. This is not so, the program itself generates the magnification factor as the average value in the selected range. In the example pictures this is the number 2.

If all selected cells contain formulas before dragging begins, then the procedure will be completely identical to the copy and paste operations. In addition, using a special pointer, you can explicitly start the copy operation without changing the values ​​(the “Copy cells” option):

You could say that dragging on small data ranges is faster, but general case Copy-paste operations are more flexible.