How do I format a cell in excel so when I paste a number with decimals they don’t show up?

say I have a cell formatted to not show decimals but then i copy and paste a number with decimals into the cell. the formatting changes to show what i pasted. I don’t want that. lol I want no decimals. i guess what i need is to somehow lock the formatting.

Which version of Excel are you referring to? Unless you have a really old version, when you paste into a cell, a "paste options" box should appear at the bottom right hand corner of your cell (it looks like a tiny clipboard). If you click the arrow, it will have the options of "Keep source formatting" or "match destination formatting". Apparently you’re wanting ‘match destination formatting’.

If you have Excel 2003 or Excel 2007 and the paste options box is not appearing, then it has been turned off. You can easily turn it back on. If that is your case, and since I don’t know which version of Excel you have in order to give you steps to do so, here is a direct link to Microsoft to turn the paste options box feature back on…this includes both Excel 2003 and Excel 2007:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289577

3 Responses to “How do I format a cell in excel so when I paste a number with decimals they don’t show up?”

  1. Colanth Says:

    Paste Special/Values. If you paste, you’re pasting the format too. (You can’t protect a cell for formatting only - either you can paste into it or you can’t.)
    References :

  2. techie12 Says:

    Highlight the column or cell and right mouse click. Select Format cell (or column). Then choose Numbers and set decimal places to 0.
    References :

  3. brayden Says:

    Which version of Excel are you referring to? Unless you have a really old version, when you paste into a cell, a "paste options" box should appear at the bottom right hand corner of your cell (it looks like a tiny clipboard). If you click the arrow, it will have the options of "Keep source formatting" or "match destination formatting". Apparently you’re wanting ‘match destination formatting’.

    If you have Excel 2003 or Excel 2007 and the paste options box is not appearing, then it has been turned off. You can easily turn it back on. If that is your case, and since I don’t know which version of Excel you have in order to give you steps to do so, here is a direct link to Microsoft to turn the paste options box feature back on…this includes both Excel 2003 and Excel 2007:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289577
    References :

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