Conditional Formatting with Ctrl-V

[TODDLL]

I am stumped. I have 2 separate source worksheets that I copy from and paste into my destination worksheets. On one of the destination worksheets I can do Ctrl-V and it pastes in the data and preserves the conditional formatting. In the other worksheet, Ctrl-V overwrites all of my formatting in the destination worksheet. For the latter worksheet, I must do a paste special to preserve conditional formatting. I am trying to understand why Ctrl-V works in one but not the other. My preference is to use Ctrl-V vs paste special to keep it easier for the end users. Could the difference have anything to do with the source files? Thank you.

 

[Anthony47]

Check if you have two separate Excel sessions (2 Microsoft Excel processes); in this case, pasting from session A to session B will result in copying values-only, whereas copy within the same session will result in full copy.

Bye

 

[TODDLL]

Here is my situation. I open my destination file. My destination file has 2 tabs I use (Destination tab 1 & Destination tab 2). I then open Source file 1 by clicking on the file name in my directory, copy and paste into destination tab 1, and it pastes the data preserving my formatting. I close out Source file 1 and then open Source file 2 by clicking on the file name in my directory, copy and paste into Destination tab 2. It overwrites my formatting. Even if I open my destination file along with Source 1 and Source 2 files all at the same time, Source 1 file always pastes in correctly. Source 2 file always overwrites formatting.
I was able to get source 2 file to paste in correctly by first copying the data from source 2, then closing out the file and retaining the data in the clipboard, the pasting (Ctrl-V) into the Destination tab 2.

There seems to be something unique about either my Destination tab 2 or my Source file 2 causing a problem. I did also try opening the source file from within the original session (Destination file) and then selecting File, Open and going to Source file 2 that way. It still overwrote my formatting. Any ideas what may be going on?

 

[Anthony47]

If you are curious to decode the situation then you should do some cross tests (ie copy Source file 1 to tab 1 and tab 2; then repeat using Source file 2).
However we should look at the problem from another point of view: when excel copy & paste then the standard behaviour is that the destination area is overwritten (formula, format, validation, comment and maybe more) by the copied datas. So we should rather understand why when copying from Source file 1 to Tab1 the formatting is not altered by the copied information, even though that's what you like.
I thing that when examining the files involved the behaviour could be clarified, in the meantime keep using Contr C /Contr V for full copy & paste or Contr C /Contr-Alt V for paste special.

Bye

 

[TODDLL]

If you are curious to decode the situation then you should do some cross tests (ie copy Source file 1 to tab 1 and tab 2; then repeat using Source file 2).
However we should look at the problem from another point of view: when excel copy & paste then the standard behaviour is that the destination area is overwritten (formula, format, validation, comment and maybe more) by the copied datas. So we should rather understand why when copying from Source file 1 to Tab1 the formatting is not altered by the copied information, even though that's what you like.
I thing that when examining the files involved the behaviour could be clarified, in the meantime keep using Contr C /Contr V for full copy & paste or Contr C /Contr-Alt V for paste special.

Bye

I appreciate you help on this. I agree that the standard behavior for Ctrl-V is to overwrite everything but really enjoyed that it didn't. The other issue I have with doing a paste special is that I have dates with times in several fields and it wipes all of that out and pastes those dates in with a general formatting where I just get the dates with time as a string of numbers. I will try your suggestions when I have a little more time to play with it. I may just have to write a Macro to reset the formatting once the data has been copied over. The end users for my workbook only know Excel basics and I am trying to write instructions for them on copying and pasting data from another source to the workbook, and I am trying to make it very easy to do. Thanks again for your help.