Home > Skills > Data Entry > Paste Special Change Numbers With Paste SpecialUse the Paste Special command to automatically add, divide, or multiply specific amounts to numbers on a Microsoft Excel worksheet. |
Without using formulas, you can add, subtract, multiply or divide all the numbers in a range by a specific amount. For example, in a price list, all the prices could be increased by $1.50, or the prices could be decreased by 5%.
This makes it easy to change the amounts on a worksheet, all at once, by using the Paste Special command on the Excel Ribbon. Just type a value into a cell, then copy that cell, and apply its value to other cells.
NOTE: This technique overwrites the original numbers, so be sure to make a backup copy of your file, before changing the numbers with Paste Special.
Thanks to T. Valko for suggesting this page!
Watch this short video to see the steps for adding or multiplying with Paste Special. Written instructions are below the video.
You may want to increase all the numbers in a range by a set amount. For example, in this price list, all the prices should be increased by $1.50. The following technique makes it easy to increase the prices, all at once.
On the worksheet, each of the selected numbers is automatically increased by $1.50
You may want to increase all the numbers in a range by a set percentage. For example, in this price list, all the prices should be increased by 5%. The following technique makes it easy to increase the prices, all at once.
To increase by a percentage, multiply by (1 + the percentage as a decimal).
Follow these steps to increase the current prices:
You may want to decrease all the numbers in a range by a set amount. For example, in this price list, all the prices should be reduces by $1.25. The following technique makes it easy to decrease the prices, all at once.
On the worksheet, each of the selected numbers is automatically decreased by $1.25
Divide Numbers With Paste SpecialWatch this short video to see the steps for dividing numbers with the Paste Special command. Written instructions, and the full video transcript, are below the video. |
Without using formulas, you can quickly divide a set of numbers, by using the Paste Special command. In this example, numbers are divided by 1000, and the result is a permanent change to the numbers.
Here is the full transcript of the video: Divide Excel Numbers Without Formulas.
Hey, this is Sarah from Contextures.com.
Today, we're going to take a look at a feature where you can permanently change numbers by adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing, without using a formula.
In my table here, you can see I've got some quantities, all in the millions. What I want to do is divide those numbers by 1000.
So, the first thing that we're going to do is to add that value, over here in the, in the worksheet. So I'm just going to type 1000 and next I want to copy that value. So I can either do that with Ctrl + C or just head here, can see it's copied.
Next step, we'll select those numbers we want to divide by the value, and we're going to head towards the ribbon for the Paste drop down, so we see the Paste special. When we select here, you'll see those operations that I was talking about earlier.
So we have add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Today, we'll be using divide. So we'll click there and OK. And now just like that, you can see those numbers have all been permanently changed to be divided by 1000.
A little bit messy, so we're going to clean this up really quickly by just going to the home ribbon, to the number section and selecting Comma style. Here, you can see they've all been aligned and the decimal places are all set to two.
Last step, will just be to delete that 1000, and we're good to go. Just a reminder. This is a permanent change to these values. It's not like a formula where you can adjust it later.
Last updated: July 19, 2023 1:50 PM
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