Funky Copy/Paste behavior..

[RhodeRider]

Hey all,
I was attempting to copy large blocks of data from one excel file to another and I noticed some really strange behavior. For instance, one cell in the first file read "Rain,fog", and when pasted it into sheet1 of a different file, the cell read "Mostly Clear". Weirder still, I noticed that on sheet3, which I did not paste into, the cell read "Rain, Fog", as it should have on sheet1. (FTR, "most clear" is one of the entries in adjacent cells. it didn't just come out of nowhere).

I closed both files and cleared the clipboard and this seems to have worked. My question is, does anyone know why this happened? I'm just curious. Also, I often copy/paste data that is not so easy to catch (just lots of numbers) and I'm worried this will happen again and I won't notice it.

Thanks!

 

[Sektor]

Clipboard

 

[RhodeRider]

Thanks for the link Sektor. The following quote leads me to believe that somehow, whatever I had previously copied was not being cleared:

The Windows clipboard stores at most 1 data element for each format. That is, the clipboard can store simultaneously a text string, an image, some HTML, and so on. If you store data of a type that already exists in the clipboard, the existing data for that type is replaced by the new data.

Also, I'm not trying to write a VBA script, just using ctrl+C and ctrl+V.

Could it possibly be related to the fact that whenever I select and move a block of data, I get the following pop-up:

The clipboard cannot be emptied. Another program might be using the clipboard.

?

THanks, Tom