Excel Paste formats/highlights all cells to the left

Copper Contributor

In Excel 2021, there is an issue within Excel.

1. Copy cell(s) and paste using mouse.

2. Click on some other cell and select "Format Painter" to grab the cell formatting.

3. Then with the mouse (now showing the Format Painter brush icon) select any of the previously pasted cells.

4. Excel will Paste Format data across the column downward (if data is in the cell) and across the rows to the left.

Note: This only occurs if the original Copy'nPaste action is followed directly by Paste Format and only if Paste Format is done using the Clipboard Format Painter. 

 

5. Excel does a similar action when selecting a cell to drag that will blow the cursor across the sheet to the left for no apparent reason. No formatting is applied in that case, yet it highlights the entire row to the new cursor position. 

 

So, Excel has a bug. I used Excel 2016 that didn't have these problems. I just switched to 2021 and this issue happens constantly. Paste or drag a cell and zoom, off goes the cursor highlighting or pasting formatting across the row to the left. Undo restores the cells or Cntrl-Z returns the cursor back to where it was but also Undoes the last action (so clicking on Redo restores your last action before Excel went whacky).

 

Are Microsoft Excel developers aware of this? Is there a workaround for it? I don't think this has anything to do with double-clicking the cell border as it does this regardless (one click is enough).

 

Johnnyanglo  

2 Replies

@Johnnyanglo 

I have Office 2021, and have been using it since it was released in October of 2021, but I cannot reproduce this problem. I performed the steps exactly as you described, but the Format Painter only acted on the cell(s) I clicked on.

@Hans Vogelaar Thanks for the reply. Perhaps that means there is some error within my copy of 2021 that is not endemic to Excel. Whenever I paste copied info into a cell there is a 33% risk that it will paste the data and everything on that row to the left for about 30 cells at once. If I click once in a cell I have the same probability that Excel will shoot 30 cells to the left highlighting along the way (making cells active and highlighted without overwriting them since it is not a paste action).

 

This issue makes it very hard to use. That is on top of the other irritants like having Excel highlight formula references when selected with the mouse. 

 

I guess I'll try and reinstall Excel 2021.