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Level 1

75 points

alternative to Drag and Drop for "identity" copying cells?

hi all.

right now when i want an "identity copy" of a single cell i do an equation where i enter the equals size and i click in the cell i need. this maintains a link with the original cell.

right now i need multiple cells (like five in a row) to get "identity copied" to a set of five new destination cells.

is there a way to do this so that i don't have to /drag/ the origination selection all the way down my spreadsheet or is this the only way to do it?

i have about 800 rows to travel and i have to do this about thirty times and it is going to get really tiresome.

i tried copy paste but it just entered five cells with "0.00" for some reason likely having to do with it being a copy of the format of the cell but not the actual content...

TIA for any advice or terms or search words etc

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 6, 2013 1:26 PM

18 replies

hotwheels22 Author

Level 1

75 points

Nov 6, 2013 5:07 PM in response to Wayne Contello

hi wayne. again thanks for all your help.

so i would term this "linked copied" cells. i am not sure how to explain it otherwise but it seems like it would be nice to have an option to Edit > Paste Linked. Edit > Paste just puts in a static cell which is not useful in a case like this. here is what i have been able to do with your help:

1. select /first/ "destination" cell.

2. click =

3 select /first/ "source" cell

4. drag white dot on fist /source/ cell across so it collects up all the cells you want to "link copy"

5. hit Return

6. this will actually drop your selection from the first destination cell /down/ one cell, so you then have to re-click in the first destination cell.

7, grab the white dot on the first destination cell and drag it across so it collects up all the cells you want to "link paste".

8. click off the cell or hit Return.

when you do this it appears from initial testing that changing a cell that affects any of the source cells will UPDATE the destination cells. however, not selecting with the little dot in both cases does appear to copy the data but does not do so in a /linked/ manner.

in this case these cells are hundreds of rows apart so there is a ton of clicking and scrolling and selecting white dots but it certainly does beat having to do each cell individually.

that said if someone on the forum has a better way to do this i would definitely like to use it next time.

again a BIG THANKS for all your help and all your patience.

regards and thank you

Nov 6, 2013 6:23 PM in response to hotwheels22

HW,

the "little dot" is called the fill control. It takes the content is the cell(s) that are selected and fills that pattern in the direction you drag the dot.

In this example: cell A7 refers to (that is takes input from) cell A3. Therefore the when I highlight cell A7 (denoted by the border around the cell, you can see it refers to cell A3 (denoted by the blue highlighting). with Cell A7 selected I copy,

Then select C7 and paste. Now when I select C7 you can see that cell A7 is highlighted because C7 is refering to it. This would work if the cells are hundres of columns apart.:

So you can see how the reference is adjusted as the destination moves from the original. You post too many words and not enough pictures. Like I posted earlier the images with column headings and row names often lead those of us helping deduce what you want.

With regards to:

but it seems like it would be nice to have an option to Edit > Paste Linked. Edit > Paste just puts in a static cell which is no

This is pointless to include these kind of statements because:

1) noone in these forums is an Apple employee

2) you do not have a clear enough statement of the problem to describe the feature.

If, however, you do get to a point whether the feature is clear and definable you can use the menu item "Numbers > Provide Numbers Feedback" to make suggestions to people whoe can (but may not) make changes.

I hope this helps a little,

All the best

Wayne

hotwheels22 Author

Level 1

75 points

Nov 11, 2013 2:16 PM in response to Wayne Contello

hi wayne,

i think i am not understanding the full scope of your answer here.

i have documented how i was able to accomplish this in the above post. but because i had to repeat this about fifty times - 8 times 50 is something like 400 different steps - this included a whole bunch of carpal tunnel inducing pulling of small dots. so i would like to be able to know if it is possible to do it in less steps or with a less elaborate method.

this is not a trivial question when dealing with a 4 or 500,000 dollar budget since if i am off one single cell in this operation - and AFAIK there is no good way to catch an error - it is possible that accidentally missing (or adding) this one cell will totally sink my budget. this kind of thing has very, very bad consequences.

so when i explain something like it would be nice to have Edit > Paste Linked i am not addressing developers. i am talking to posters on the forum so that they can see i am /just/ trying to figure out if the method i have described is the /only/ way to do this.

are you indicating that ALL these steps are necessary or are you indicating that there is a simpler way to do this? if someone knows a SIMPLER way or a less ERROR PRONE way - this is the question i am asking.

thanks!

alternative to Drag and Drop for "identity" copying cells?