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Cause: The information that you are trying to paste does not match the cell format (Date, Currency, Text, or other format) for the cells in the column.

Solution:    If you're trying to paste a large amount of information, make sure that the cell format for the cells in the column matches the format of the information that you want to paste, and then paste the information one column at a time.

Change the cell format for a column

  1. Click the column heading (A, B, C, and so on) for the column that you want to change.

  2. On the Home tab, click the Number Format Format Number box menu.

  3. Click the cell format that matches the information that you are trying to paste into the column.

Cause: There are not enough columns to accept the information that you're trying to paste.

Solution:    Insert more columns, and then try pasting again.

Insert additional columns

  1. Click the column heading (A, B, C, and so on) for the column to the right of where you want to add a column.

  2. On the Home tab, click Insert.

    The column that you originally selected shifts to the right and the new column appears.

  3. Repeat step 2 until you have inserted the number of columns that you want.

Cause: The Copy area and the Paste area are not the same size and shape.

Solution:    Select the upper-left cell instead of the whole range before you paste.

  1. Click the cell where you want the upper-left cell of the copied data to appear.

  2. On the Home tab, click Paste.

    On the Home tab, select Paste

Solution:    Select a range of cells for the Paste area that's the same size and shape as the copied data.

  1. Select a range of cells that is the exact number of rows and columns as the information that you want to paste.

  2. On the Home tab, click Paste.

    On the Home tab, select Paste

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