How to Keep Your Column Widths When You Paste In Excel 2010

Copying and pasting data in Microsoft Excel 2010 is one of the best ways that you can save yourself some time.

However, this occasionally results in weird formatting caused by the original data. One area where this is especially noticeable is the widths of the source columns.

The column widths of your data are not transferred when you do a basic copy and paste, which can cause you to spend additional time correcting this information on the new sheet.

Luckily there is a way that you can transfer column width information when you are pasting to a new sheet in Excel 2010, so continue below to find out how.

Copying and Pasting with Column Width in Excel 2010

If you haven’t used the Paste Special option in Excel 2010, then this is a great opportunity to see the options that it offers you. There are a surprising number of ways that you can paste copied data, and at least a few of them are helpful in multiple occasions. But this tutorial is specifically about copying and pasting with column widths, so you can follow the steps below to learn how.

Step 1: Open the spreadsheet containing the data that you want to copy. If you want to copy it to another existing spreadsheet, open that file as well.

Step 2: Use your mouse to highlight the data that you want to copy, then press Ctrl + C on your keyboard to copy it.

select and copy the data

Step 3: Open the other worksheet to which you want to copy the data.

select the sheet to which you want the data to be pasted

Step 4: , Click the left uppermost cell to which you want the data to be pasted.

select the left uppermost cell to which you will be pasting

Step 5: Click the Home tab at the top of the window.

how to keep column widths when you paste in excel 2010

Step 6: Click the arrow under Paste in the Clipboard section of the ribbon, then click the Keep Source Column Widths option.

select the keep column widths option

Now that you know more about copying and pasting with column width in Excel 2010, you will be able to use this option and save yourself some time while formatting data that you have pasted between worksheets.

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