Paste Special and Format Painter not working

[MaddySEO]

Hi everyone,

You were recommended to me for help solving a really frustrating problem affecting myself and some of my colleagues. Thanks in advance for your help!

Basically, the Paste Special menu is greyed out on our spreadsheets, in whatever file we open, so you can only copy and paste in plain text. Also Format Painter isn't working so if you click on it, you don't even get the little paintbrush next to your mouse arrow. It's a mystery! Mine has been cutting in and out but some people's in the office haven't worked since the end of last week.

Any thoughts? Advice would be really appreciated as creating and editing tables is taking us 10 times as long as usual!

Many thanks,

Maddy

 

[cyrilbrd]

Hi Maddy,

It could be an add-in or a (hidden) workbook that is launched at login.

Try to open your file in safe mode:
for PC I think it is like Start>Run "C:\Program Files\MicrosoftOffice\Office\Excel.exe" /Safe

Or Excel.exe /Safe

link here

If no problem during the safe mode then check this:

Go to Tools-Add-ins and uncheck all Add-ins.
Close and reopen excel.

If still no problem then one of your Add-ins is faulty.
reselect your Add-ins one at the time repeating the sequence Quit / open "does it work?" until you find the one causing mayhem.

Thanks to keep us posted.

 

[MaddySEO]

Hi Cyrilbrd,

Thanks for responding. I'll try all that and let you know if it solves the problem!

Many thanks,

Maddy

 

[MaddySEO]

Hi again,

OK, i've opened in Safe Mode, still no Paste Special or Format Painter. Then i checked add ins in the options menu, looks like i only have inactive add ins as they are all unchecked already. Could it be to do with Smart Tags? Those were the only things that had some boxes ticked. But it's just autoformatting ....

Mystery!

Any thoughts?

Many thanks,

Maddy

 

[cyrilbrd]

ok...
have you tried to right click on an empty spot on any of the toolbars then choose Customize Toolbars tab.
Select worksheet menu bar and click reset Toolbar

 

[cyrilbrd]

found on Microsoft public forum, posted by Dave Peterson:

Close excel
use windows search to look for *.xlb
and delete all that you find (or move them to a safe location if you're worried)
And remember to look through hidden folders, too. People can have trouble
finding them.
If you can't find your files using windows start button|Search, then you could
use an old DOS command to search and delete/move them
Windows Start button|Run
type:
CMD
(to get to the Command prompt)
C:
(to get to the C: drive--change this to the drive that excel is installed on)
cd\
(to get to the root directory)
dir *.xlb /s
The /s says to search subfolders, too.
Make a note of the locations of the found files.
And delete/move them.
Then reopen excel and do some minor modifications. Then close and reopen excel
to see if it worked.
If it worked, make your real changes.
If it didn't work, put your *.xlb file back (if you want).

Hope this will help if previous suggestion didn't...
Looks like this isn't an unknown problem however.
As for why it happened...

Keep us posted!

 

[ugrinov]

I had this problem and lost the whole afternoon looking for a solution - nothing helped, restarting, changing options, looking for broken addin or something in the clipboard
Until I found that the "skype click to call" brakes excel http://community.skype.com/t5/Windo...l-breaks-Excel-2010-Paste-feature/td-p/578763

so I uninstalled the skype click to call and the problem was solved

 

[Peter_SSs]

I had this problem and lost the whole afternoon looking for a solution - nothing helped, restarting, changing options, looking for broken addin or something in the clipboard
Until I found that the "skype click to call" brakes excel http://community.skype.com/t5/Windo...l-breaks-Excel-2010-Paste-feature/td-p/578763

so I uninstalled the skype click to call and the problem was solved

This was my experience too.

 

[HawaiiMiguel]

I had this problem and lost the whole afternoon looking for a solution - nothing helped, restarting, changing options, looking for broken addin or something in the clipboard
Until I found that the "skype click to call" brakes excel http://community.skype.com/t5/Windo...l-breaks-Excel-2010-Paste-feature/td-p/578763

so I uninstalled the skype click to call and the problem was solved

Wow! You guys are so sharp! Thank goodness I found Mr Excel. I had pulled out my last remaining hairs trying to figure out what was wrong with Excel all of a sudden; I would never have thought of Skype Click-to-Call. But Click to call is kinda helpful.... does anyone know a workaround that will prevent it from affecting Excel copy and paste? What a bizarre side effect! Miguel

 

[tbeadle]

This was my experience too.

Skype Click to Call was my issue to..