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Paste formula results grayed out

In Numbers 10.3.9 - When I copy a cell containing a formula to paste into another cell it will only paste the value of the original cell not the formula. If I check the edit drop down the option to "Paste formula results" is grayed out. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong , I suspect it's an obscure setting somewhere as I tried this on my partner's MacBook and it works fine.

Posted on Feb 6, 2021 5:36 AM

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Posted on Feb 7, 2021 6:30 AM

Does your Mac have any kind of helper app running in the background that might affect copy/pasting or how data on the clipboard is used? Are you running anything that might modify input from the keyboard or how copy/pasting might work? Often something like that is the root cause of the really oddball problems like this.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 7, 2021 6:30 AM in response to Copgiver

Does your Mac have any kind of helper app running in the background that might affect copy/pasting or how data on the clipboard is used? Are you running anything that might modify input from the keyboard or how copy/pasting might work? Often something like that is the root cause of the really oddball problems like this.

Feb 6, 2021 10:06 PM in response to Copgiver

When you select the cell to paste, click only once. This selects the cell and you can use Paste Formula Results. If you click twice instead, it puts you into text editing mode and you will not be able to use Paste Formula Results.


But I'm not sure I totally understood your question. If you double-click and enter text mode, the normal Paste operation seems to do the same as Paste Formula Results. Both put the results of the formula into the cell.


If you want to paste the actual formula into another cell exactly as it appears in the first cell, you have to double click the cell with the formula to bring up the formula bar, select the formula (Cmd A) , Copy (Cmd C), then click on the other cell, type an =, then Paste (Cmd V).


If you want to paste the formula and have any cell references update to match the new cell, you select the cell, Copy, then Paste in the other cell.

Paste formula results grayed out

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