# Microsoft Office Application Help - Excel Help forum > Excel General >  >  Excel will not copy formulas

## jakethesnake

I am trying to do a very simple copy and paste of a simple formula in Excel 2007 and nothing seems to be working.  Excel will not let me copy and paste a formula and will only paste the value into to workbook.  For instance, if I make a very simple spreadsheet such as:
A1 type in 10, A2 type in =A1 (calculated A2 to be 10)
B1 type in 5

And then click the copy on B1, and then click paste special on cell B2, the only options it gives me are text and unicode text and so no matter how I paste, cell b2 will always be populated with a value of 5.  I cannot imagine a simpler copy and paste and no matter what I do I can't make this work.  
All cells are formatted as general.  It seems that all copy and pasting of formulas in my excel has been disabled.  If I open any spreadsheet on my computer, I can't copy and paste formulas, but do the exact same thing on the exact same spreadsheet on any other computer and it works no problem.

Any help?

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## DonkeyOte

Sounds to me as though you have 2 separate instances of XL running as opposed to 2 files within the same instance of XL.

For ex. close everything completely, open XL, press CTRL + N to create a 2nd file in the same instance of XL, repeat your process above and you should find you can copy / paste etc...  If you open 2 instances of XL and run one file in each you will experience the issues you mention.

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## jakethesnake

I only have one spreadsheet open and one instance of excel open.  I am literally trying to copy and paste from the cell above to the cell below.  Not into different work books or different files.

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## DonkeyOte

Could you attach the offending file to the board - we can then see if it's a client issue or specific to the workbook... there may be a setting I'm not aware of 
(I suspect there are _plenty_!)

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## mikeydaman

sorry to add my 2 cents but did you try dragging the formula down cells? or is that not what you are looking for?

cheers

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## jakethesnake

I'm not at the offending computer at the moment, but it does it for all spreadsheets, even new ones, but if I save it to our common drive and open it up on any other computer, it works like a charm, so I doubt it would be a file issue (as it is happening to all files and only on this computer), but if you'd still like the file I can upload it in about half an hour..

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## jakethesnake

And yes, I've tried dragging down, also to no avail (again, but only on this computer...)

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## DonkeyOte

Just checking ... not to sound like the IT dept but have you tried completely rebooting the client in question ?

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## mikeydaman

when you click on paste special check values and see if that works?

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## jakethesnake

I haven't tried the 'magic windows fix-all' of rebooting yet, but I will now!

And mikey, when I click paste special, the only two options are text and unicode text.  Values, formulas, etc don't even appear.

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## mikeydaman

ahhhh maybe it has something to do with excel itself.  I wonder if all the components are installed on it.  Does it do it no matter how many different excel sheets you open?

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## jakethesnake

Well, well, resetting did it.  By the looks of it there was a program that was accessing the clipboard that had hijacked it and was causing it to fail.  It's amazing how much can be fixed by a hard reset.  Thanks for your help everyone!

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## mikeydaman

Damn Computers!  good job

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## DonkeyOte

re: clipboard etc... some useful links to apps to aid determining underlying cause: http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/bb/ftopic140408.html

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## flippertie

In case it helps anyone - 
I had this exact problem in Excel 2003. Using this thread as a guide I traced the problem to a clipboard enhancement tool I use called Arsclip.   Kill that and the copy / paste / paste special works as normal..

It's a real shame because I find Arsclip really useful - and this is the only time I've found it to interfere with any other program.

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## mscanna

Hello all, I am looking to use VBA to replace <= with character code: 2264 from Unicode (hex) or 32 from ASCII (decimal).

Typically I would do: 

Cells.Replace What:="<=", Replacement:="=", LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder _
        :=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, ReplaceFormat:=False


But as you can see from the latter half the symbol is not there. Would definitely appreciate any help that you can give me. Thank you!

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## lextran12

I had this exact same problem with Excel 2007 on Windows 7, and was able to solve it easily once I figured out what the problem was.

My problem was Skype.

Specifically, the Skype "click-and-dial" software, which installs itself in numerous programs and browsers.  I de-installed Skype (including click-and-dial) then reinstalled Skype without click and dial (for some reason, it did not even offer to install it during the reinstall).

Voila!  Problem solved!

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## Irasaf

I have been having the exact same problems - I just deleted the Skype "click-and-dial" software.  Seems to have cured the problem but it was an on or off issue so I am going to give it a few days.

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## Paul

It usually only causes a problem if you have the browser add-in installed and have your browser open while Excel is open.  If the browser is closed, copy/paste should work normally.  There is also an updated version of the browser add-in from Skype if you do need it installed.

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## Lady Engr

Try this: Click on: Formulas > Calculation Options. From the drop down mwnu, choose Automatic.
Let me know if that works.

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## miut

it is right, i also experience the same error, can not "copy" or use "paste special option" though i have been trying a lot of steps
to this problem you can:
1/ Close Skype if it is opening
or
2/Delete/ remove Skype from Google Chrome browser, no need to unistall it

Done. Every thing is ok now.

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## Beta1

I'm having the same problem.  When you say you reset it, do you mean you just re-booted your computer?

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## Paul

Uninstall the Skype browser add-in and you should be able to copy and paste in Excel.  If you need the Skype add-in, download the latest version from their website which has fixed the compatibility issue.

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## bluejak

I have similar problems in both Excel and Word - but they are random.  Sometimes they copy normally, sometimes it is text-only which is very annoying in both.  However, I do have Skype running so I shall try what has been suggested here.  Thanks.

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## Fyyzer

Just had this happen in Excel 2010 and couldn't figure out what was happening until some googling found this discussion.

For the record it was PushBullet's Universal Copy/Paste feature that was the culprit in my case.  Hope this is helpful for someone else down the road.

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