Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Ignoring Paragraph Marks when Pasting.

Ignoring Paragraph Marks when Pasting

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 22, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

2

Sharon has text in which information is separated by paragraph marks. She wants to copy it to a single cell in an Excel worksheet, but whenever she tries pasting the information, Excel separates the information into different cells based on the paragraph marks.

This behavior (recognizing the paragraph marks as the start of a new chunk of data) is normal in Excel. One way to approach this problem is to simply change how you are doing your pasting. Follow these steps:

  1. In Word or whatever is your source program, copy the desired text to the Clipboard. (Selecting it and pressing Ctrl+C will do fine.)
  2. In Excel, select the cell where you want the information pasted.
  3. Press F2. This switches to edit mode for the cell, and you should see the insertion point blinking in the Formula bar. (If you don't want to take your hands off the mouse, you could also double-click the cell to enter edit mode.)
  4. Press Ctrl+V to paste the information from the Clipboard.

That's it; the information is pasted into the single cell. This works because you were in edit mode before you did the paste, so everything was done in the selected cell rather than going through Excel's normal import filter.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8940) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Ignoring Paragraph Marks when Pasting.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is nine more than 8?

2021-03-13 05:23:04

Einat

But what if you have a table in word, with a few paragraphs in a single cell ?

2021-02-23 08:41:09

NormThib

You can also enter edit mode by clicking into the formula bar after clicking the cell to select it.

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