Microsoft Excel: Copied Formula Has Strange Borders

Problem: You copied a formula and the borders look out of place in the paste area. In the image below, you copied D4 and pasted to D5: D34. The top border from D4 was copied to every cell in the paste area, as shown in Fig. 1283.

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Strategy: After the fact, you need to clear the borders and start over again. Select the range with the unwanted formats. From the menu, select Edit – Clear – Formats, as shown in Fig. 1284.

As shown in Fig. 1285, this will clear all of the borders, which is seldom what you want.

Additional Details: To prevent the problem in the first place, instead of pasting the cells, use either Edit – Paste Special – Formulas or Edit – Paste Special – All Except Borders to copy the formulas without the border or formatting, as shown in Fig. 1286.

Summary: It is better to use Paste Special to prevent borders from getting copied into your data range. If you discover this too late, use Edit – Clear – Formats to get rid of unwanted borders.

Commands Discussed: Edit – Clear – Formats; Edit – Paste Special – All Except Borders; Edit – Paste Special – Formulas

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