Why does cutting a cell in Excel not work properly?

I am having a problem with cut & paste, and copy & paste. I lose the formatting when I paste. Also, the cut does not cut but just works as "copy". And when I select the cell and do cut or copy, it does not highlight the cell. And paste special only has a couple of selections, that is, Unicode, etc.

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Laila 02.04.12 - I can add some info to the problem: I've been trying to solve for weeks. I use Office 2007 and the software is fully updated. I have no macros on any excel sheets on my computer that could cause this. We have tried to reset the software with no luck. We have tried to re-install microsoft office where we also removed several regestry files, but with no luck. The problem appears also when you work with one single sheet. Paste special does not work at all.

It sounds to me like you're trying to cut/copy and paste between two different instances of Excel (ie, you've opened Excel multiple times rather than opening new workbooks within the program).

You can only preserve formatting and have all the Paste Special options available when you're working between two workbooks in the same Excel instance.

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02.04.2012 LM - Try removing the software Skype Click-to-Call. I've read that it causes problems for excel 2007 and 2010. I did this on my computer and it instantly worked after.

2012-04-03, smitil: I had the same experience, i.e. when trying to Cut in Excel it worked like Copy (did not delete the initial data). I confirm that I removed the Skype Click-to-Call and instantly fixed the problem.

01-04-2013 - Jim: I'm on Mac OS 10.8.3 and had the same issue. Uninstalled Skype and my keyboard shortcuts to copy, cut and paste came right back.