Office & productivity software forum: excel problem with copying formulas

An interesting phenomenon I didn't know about. So I had to experiment a little bit in my Excel 2000. It might very well work otherwise in higher versions (XP, 2003, 2007), I just didn't try.

Copying of formulas only works in the same instance of Excel. It doensn't work between different instances. You don't see the difference in the taskbar, but you can see it in the Window command in the menubar. A workmap is open in the same instance as another workmap if they are mentioned happily together as open windows there. And they are open in different instances if you don't see them mentioned together.

So:
- In your source workbook use File>Open to open the target workbook, it will open in the same instance and you can copy/paste formulas.
- If you open the target workbook by clicking on it in Explorer, or after running a different instance of Excel from Start>Programs or an icon on your desktop, you can't copy formulas.

All I can say: that's the way it's designed.

Kees

Sorry, these are more or less technical terms.

The source workbook is the workbook that contains the worksheet you want to copy. The target workbook is the workboot that you want to copy the worksheet to.

You copy from source to target. That's the idea.

Kees

Mark,
That worked perfectly. Thanks for the tip, I appreciate it

So if it has formulas with you, it will have formulas over there.

However, if you make cross-workbook formulas (formulas in workbook #1 pointing to workbook #2), that involves saving and putting the workbooks in the 'correct' folder. It might not work directly from the attachement.


Kees