Excel Paste Special Cheat Sheet
Every Paste Special option, what it actually pastes, and the Windows and Mac route to it.
| Option | What arrives | Windows | Mac |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open the dialog | Every option below | Ctrl + Alt + V | ⌘ + ⌃ + V |
| Values | The results, with the formulas discarded | Ctrl + Alt + V, then V | Dialog → Values |
| Formulas | The formulas, with formatting discarded | Ctrl + Alt + V, then F | Dialog → Formulas |
| Values & number formats | Results, keeping currency and date formats | Ctrl + Alt + V, then U | Dialog → Values & Number Formats |
| Formats | Only the look — like the Format Painter | Ctrl + Alt + V, then T | Dialog → Formats |
| Column widths | Only the column widths | Ctrl + Alt + V, then W | Dialog → Column Widths |
| Transpose | Rows become columns and vice versa | Ctrl + Alt + V, then E | Dialog → Transpose |
| Paste link | A live reference back to the source cells | Ctrl + Alt + V, then L | Dialog → Paste Link |
| Skip blanks | Blank source cells leave the target untouched | Ctrl + Alt + V, then B | Dialog → Skip Blanks |
| Add / Subtract / Multiply / Divide | The copied number applied to what is already there | Ctrl + Alt + V → Operation | Dialog → Operation |
About this sheet
Paste Special is the difference between moving a result and moving the machinery that produced it. The options people reach for most — values only, transpose, column widths, and the arithmetic operations that apply a copied number to whatever is already in the range — are all one dialog away, and the Windows sequence is a single accelerator letter once the dialog is open.
Free to use, share and republish — including commercially. Attribution isn't required, but it's what keeps these free to make, and there's one ready to paste below.
Questions
Is this cheat sheet free?
Yes, and there is no email gate. The whole table is on this page, and the download is built in your browser when you click it.
Can I print it?
Yes — the print layout drops the navigation and page furniture and keeps the tables, so it comes out as a clean reference rather than a screenshot of a web page.
What formats can I download?
Excel (.xlsx) and CSV. Both hold exactly the rows shown on this page.
Is this reference complete?
It covers the entries people actually look up. A reference you can read in one sitting beats an exhaustive dump you scroll past — the same reason the shortcuts sheet is curated rather than a 350-row export.