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How to copy cell formula only not formatting in Excel?

Author: Sun Last Modified: 2024-11-05

For instance, I have two ranges of data, and one of the data range has been done some calculations, and now I need to do the same calculations in the other range. But I do not want to copy the formatting of the range 1 to range 2, here this tutorial is talking about the tricks to solve it in Excel.

A screenshot of Excel with two data ranges, one with calculated values

Copy cell formula only without values by Paste Special

Copy cell formula only without values by Copy Ranges

Copy cell formula without changing the cell reference by Exact Copy


arrow blue right bubble Copy cell formula only without values by Paste Special

Directly copying and pasting formula cells will copy both the formula and the cell formatting. And with the Paste Special of Excel, you can choose to only copy formula paste option.

Select the formula cells you want to copy, and press Ctrl + C to copy them, then go to select the cells you want to paste, and right click to show the context menu, click Paste Special > Formulas in Excel. See screenshot:

A screenshot showing Paste Special option to copy formulas only in Excel

Note: In Excel 2007, after clicking Paste Special from the context menu, it opens Paste Special dialog box. In the dialog box, check Formulas, and click OK.

A screenshot of Paste Special dialog in Excel 2007 with Formulas selected

Then you can see only the formulas are copied.

Note: The cell references of copied formulas will change based on destination cell addresses.

A screenshot showing copied formulas


arrow blue right bubble Copy cell formula only without values by Copy Ranges

There is a powerful copy function – Copy Ranges in a handy tool Kutools for Excel. With Copy Ranges, you can only copy cell format, formula, value, comments and so on.

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1. Select the cells you want to copy and click Kutools > Copy Ranges. See screenshot:

A screenshot of Kutools Copy Ranges function in Excel

2. In the Copy Multiple Ranges dialog, check the Formulas option only, then click Ok and select the cells to paste the formulas. See screenshots:

A screenshot of Copy Multiple Ranges dialog with Formulas selected

A screenshot of Copy Multiple Ranges dialog for selecting destination cell

3. Click OK. Now the cells are pasted formula without formatting. See screenshot:

A screenshot of Excel showing pasted formulas

Note: The cell references of copied formulas will change based on destination cell addresses.


arrow blue right bubble Copy cell formula without changing the cell reference by Exact Copy

In addition to only copying formulas, sometimes, you may want to copy cell formulas and keep the cell references. For instance, you copy the formula =MAX(B2:B14) of cell Sheet1!B16 to the cell Sheet2!D1, the formula is also =MAX(B2:B14).

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In Kutools for Excel, the Exact Copy utility can do a favor for you.

1. Select the formula cells needed to copy, and click Kutools > Exact Copy. See screenshot:

A screenshot of Exact Copy option in Kutools tab in Excel

2. Then in the Exact Formula Copy dialog, uncheck Copy formatting, and click Ok to select cells needed paste formula. See screenshots:

A screenshot of Exact Formula Copy dialog with Copy formatting unchecked
A screenshot of Exact Formula Copy dialog for selecting destination cell

3. Click OK. Now the formulas are pasted and keep the cell reference. See screenshot:

A screenshot showing formulas pasted with unchanged cell references using Kutools Exact Copy

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