How can I paste formulas exactly as-is, without changing relative cell references (or using $-anchors)?

[d0rian]

Just like the title asks, I want to paste formulas from one cell to another:
i) WITHOUT changing relative cell references, and
ii) WITHOUT dragging the cell (sometimes I want to copy the formula to a new cell, but leave the original cell unchanged), and
ii) WITHOUT using the $-symbol anchor (because some cell formulas have a combination of $-anchored and non-anchored cell references, and it would just be all-around messy...so I want to know the fastest way to just tell Excel to copy a formula 'verbatim' to a different cell without changing any relative cell references)


So if cell A1 has formula =B1+C1+D1, how can I paste that to, say, cell A4 without it changing the formula to =B4+C4+D4? (and without using the $-symbol)?

 

[Michael M]

Put the cursor in the cell with the original formula, now copy the formula from the formula bar NOT the cell itself, by highlighting the formula (it will turn black) and then right click>> copy
Press Esc, so the formula bar goes back to normal......and paste the formula in the new location

 

[d0rian]

Sorry, I should have been more explicit, since I'm quite familiar with the ability to simply highlight / copy / paste the text of the formula...I need a command that will work on multiple selections at once, since I often want to do this for a large number of cells, and the highlight/copy/paste method only works for 1 cell at once.

 

[Michael M]

Ok, select the cells, do a FIND and REPLACE, change the = sign to a # sign
Then copy paste to the new location
now repeat the FIND / REPLACE process in reverse