Copy/paste columns/rows into another document

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Level 1

29 points

Copy/paste columns/rows into another document

In Microsoft Excel, the user is able to copy non-consecutive rows/columns and copy & paste them into a new document (Numbers/Pages/Mail/etc.) without "gaps". However, with Numbers, this does not seem possible -- unless I am missing a crucial step. For example, if I select the rows in the example below, copy, then paste into a new document (let's say, Numbers), the selected rows are copied, but so are the rows in-between, albeit without any contents. This, however, is not the case with Excel as all the copied cells are pasted alongside one-another without any gaps. Am I missing something here, or is this a missing feature of Numbers? And please don't say I should use Excel ;)

Thanks for any help you are able to provide!

Chris

Posted on Dec 10, 2014 3:43 PM

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Answer 1

Badunit

Level 7

30,432 points

Dec 10, 2014 5:11 PM in response to OMMBoy

You are not doing anything wrong and you are not missing anything. It just doesn't work that way in Numbers. I wouldn't call it a missing feature, it just works differently. Is this something you do very often and really need a way to have it paste consecutively? Maybe an Applescript could be written to modify the contents of the clipboard to make this possible.

On a side note, I also see that if you select non-consecutive rows in Excel then Paste into Numbers (or TextEdit), not into another Excel document, you get the intervening cells as well, including their contents. Excel is putting something strange on the clipboard that only it understands.

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Answer 2

Dec 10, 2014 5:43 PM in response to OMMBoy

I tried selecting non-contiguous cells and pasting them somewhere else and it worked fine for me.

Here is what I did:

1) select the cells, by holding the command key while clicking the cells I want to copy:

2) copy

3) select the destination cell (denoted with the big arrow)"

4) paste

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Answer 3

Badunit

Level 7

30,432 points

Dec 10, 2014 6:18 PM in response to Wayne Contello

In Excel, if you select non-contiguous cells and paste them elsewhere, the pasted cells are contiguous. I copied only the 1 and 3 and then pasted into column C (I clicked on only cell C1 before pasting, the box around C1:C2 was a result of the Paste operation). This is what the OP is looking to do in Numbers.

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Answer 4

OMMBoy Author

Level 1

29 points

Dec 10, 2014 8:14 PM in response to OMMBoy

Hi, Badunit and Wayne!

Thank you both for your replies! We use only Apple products where I work, and so, I am trying to learn Numbers. I originally came from a Windows environment and have Excel skillz (with a "z"), but have been using an iMac and MacBook for two years now and only recently was introduced to Numbers and the iWork suite. While there are a lot of similarities, there are also a lot of differences (that's why I use Excel for Mac at home). I have become accustomed (spoiled?) by this copy and paste feature of Excel as I use it frequently in emails, and I hope Apple will consider adding this functionality in the future.

Thanks, again, for your help!

Chris

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Answer 5

Yellowbox

Level 7

21,939 points

Dec 11, 2014 2:49 AM in response to OMMBoy

Hi Chris,

If your pasted data is always in ascending order, sort Table 1-1 Ascending to put the blank cells at the bottom. Your data cells will then be contiguous.

If your pasted data are not in ascending or descending order, add another column by which to sort.

Formula in A2 (and Fill Down)

=IF(LEN(B2)>0,ROW(cell),"")

If the length of (the contents of) B2 is >0, it contains some kind of value. Then insert the ROW number, else insert "" (NULL).

Select column A, copy, then Menu > Edit > Paste Formula Results to "freeze" the values.

Sort the table by column A

If you are doing a lot of this, Save As Template with the formulas in column A and a blank column B.

Regards,

Ian.

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Answer 6

OMMBoy Author

Level 1

29 points

Dec 11, 2014 8:23 AM in response to Yellowbox

Hi, Ian!

Excellent suggestion! It's a couple extra steps, but it just might work.

Thanks!

Chris

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