I paste a copied value and then want to insert cells, Excel will paste the insert into inserted cell

Hi Linda

In addition to what John has said about hitting ESC to cease the pasting issue (you'll know something is is currently copied if you see a broken box around a cell or range of cells), you can also clear the Excel clipboard of any recent copied data that you have captured.

1. In the Home tab, click onto the expanding option, bottom right corner of the Clipboard section.

Click the little icon to open the Clipboard side pane. This will show you the recent things that you have previously copied.

As you can see, John Doe was the last cell I had copied and still has the rotating broken line box around the cell telling me it is active in memory to paste.

2. From the Clipboard side pane, you can:

a. Paste All - Everything in Clipboard memory will paste to a cell location that you select.

b. Clear All - Clears the Clipboard of all data.

c. Clear a single item - Hover your mouse over the item in the Clipboard side pane, and you can Delete it.

Click onto the item to immediate paste, or hover over the item, drop down the list and you can Delete the item if you wish.

Hopefully that also helps to understand the ways you can manage your Clipboard data. Also accessing previously copied cells can help with repetitive tasks.

Best wishes!

Cheers

Damien