Paste Special in Google Sheets for Excel Users

Three Ways Excel Users Paste Special

Most Excel users have one of three habits for Paste Special, depending on when they learned:

• The ribbon sequence: Alt + H + V opens the Paste dropdown on the Home tab, and a fourth letter picks the option, such as V for values.
• The classic sequence: Alt + E + S is a holdover from the old Edit menu that still opens the Paste Special dialog in modern Excel, followed by a letter.
• The dialog shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + V opens the Paste Special dialog directly.

None of the three works the way you expect in Google Sheets. The Alt sequences do nothing, because Sheets has no ribbon or key-tips. The third one does something, but not the same thing.

What Google Sheets Has Natively

Sheets has a Paste special list under Edit > Paste special, also available by right-clicking a cell and choosing Paste special. It offers values only, format only, formula only, conditional formatting only, data validation only, transposed, column widths only and all except borders.

Two of those have keyboard shortcuts:

Action	Windows	Mac
Paste values only	Ctrl + Shift + V	Cmd + Shift + V
Paste format only	Ctrl + Alt + V	Cmd + Option + V

The Ctrl + Alt + V Trap

This is the one to watch. In Excel, Ctrl + Alt + V opens a dialog and waits for you to choose. In Google Sheets the same keys paste formatting immediately, with no dialog. If you press it expecting the Excel dialog and then type V for values, you have already pasted the source formatting over your target cells. If that happens, undo with Ctrl + Z and paste again the way you meant to.

The Excel Paste Special Keys in Sheets With ShortieCuts

ShortieCuts adds Excel-style key-tips to Google Sheets. Copy as usual with Ctrl + C, select the destination, press Alt (Option on a Mac) and type the rest of the sequence you already know.

Keys	Pastes	Native Sheets Equivalent
Alt + H + V + V	Values	Ctrl + Shift + V
Alt + H + V + F	Formulas	Edit > Paste special > Formula only
Alt + H + V + T	Transposed	Edit > Paste special > Transposed
Alt + H + V + B	All except borders	Edit > Paste special > All except borders
Alt + H + V + R	Formatting only	Ctrl + Alt + V
Alt + E + S + V	Values	Ctrl + Shift + V
Alt + E + S + F	Formulas	Edit > Paste special > Formula only
Alt + E + S + X	All except borders	Edit > Paste special > All except borders

Use whichever family your hands already know. The point is not to learn new keys; it is to stop translating between two tools mid-task.

When To Use Each One in a Model

Values

Paste values is the workhorse. Use it to freeze a pulled data set so it stops recalculating, to hand a colleague numbers without your formulas, or to replace a helper formula with its result before deleting the helper column. In Sheets it is also the clean way to bring in data copied from a web page or another file without inheriting its fonts and fills.

Formulas

Paste formulas copies the logic without the formatting. It is the right choice when you extend a calculation into a block that already has its own number formats, borders and shading, such as adding a new year column to a formatted operating model.

Transposed

Transposed turns rows into columns and the reverse. The common case is a vertical list of years or line items that needs to become a header row. Transposing formulas with relative references can produce references that no longer point where you expect, so check a cell or two afterwards; with ShortieCuts, Ctrl + [ on a pasted cell jumps to the cells it reads (see the trace guide).

All Except Borders

All except borders pastes values, formulas and formatting but leaves the destination's borders alone. It is the paste to use inside a finished template where totals already carry their underlines and section boxes are drawn.

Formatting Only

Formatting only copies the look without the content, useful for making a new section match an existing one. For one-off format copying, Alt + H + F + P opens the format painter instead.

What Google Sheets Paste Special Cannot Do

Excel's Paste Special dialog has an Operation section: add, subtract, multiply and divide the copied values into the destination. Google Sheets' Paste special has no operations at all, and no shortcut sequence can add a feature that is not there.

The workaround is a helper formula followed by a values paste. To convert a block of figures from dollars to thousands, for example:

1. In an empty column next to the data, enter =B2/1000 and fill it down alongside the block.
2. Copy the helper column.
3. Select the original figures and paste values with Ctrl + Shift + V or Alt + H + V + V.
4. Clear the helper column with Alt + H + E + C.

The same pattern flips signs (multiply by -1) or applies an FX rate to a column. It takes a few more steps than Excel's operation paste, but it leaves no hidden formulas behind.

More on Pasting

For a deeper look at the values-only paste specifically, see the paste values shortcut in Google Sheets, and for background on how the Paste Special key works in each tool, the Paste Special shortcut key in Excel and Google Sheets. Every Excel sequence ShortieCuts supports is on the shortcuts index. ShortieCuts runs in Chrome, and Pro is $7.99 a month or $69.99 a year with a 14-day free trial; see pricing.

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