In excel 2010, pushing ctrl+x will delete the highlighted words. They are not saved to the clipboard. Can't be recovered with undo. Why?

UPDATE: This only seems to happen when I push Ctrl+X, then Ctrl+C after. This will erase the cut from the clipboard and Ctrl+Z will not undo the cut.

When I am editing text (in this case, Japanese text) within a cell in Excel 2010. Sometimes when I push Ctrl+X, it just deletes the highlighted words. They are not saved to the clipboard. They cannot be pasted. Pressing undo does not bring the deleted words back.

Other times, Ctrl+X cuts normally and the text can be pasted normally after.

Does anyone know why this is happening and how to make it stop happening?

user7965483

Posted 2017-05-04T20:45:45.370

Reputation: 1

1Can you give an exact example of a case in which this happens and when it doesn't? There are a lot of ins and out with regard to excel and that info will help. – kyle_engineer – 2017-05-04T20:47:52.687

I figured some additional information out. I updated my question. But I'll post the edit here as well: This only seems to happen when I push Ctrl X, then Ctrl C after. Doing this seems to erase what I cut from the clipboard and makes Ctrl Z no longer undo the cut. – user7965483 – 2017-05-04T21:36:58.657

Answers

For those confused, i'll explain and answer the question.

You have cell A1 with the text hello

You press Ctrl+X to cut the content of cell A1, after which you choose to Ctrl+C to copy the content. At this point the cell is in a selected state. If at this point you perform Ctrl+Z, the action you're undoing isn't the copy or the cut, you're undoing the original entry for the cell A1. This is because for you to undo a copy or a cut, you have to finish with a paste Ctrl+V.

Example:

Enter into cell A1 the text hello
Change the text in cell A1 the text derp
Ctrl+X
Ctrl+C
Ctrl+Z
Your text isn't empty, it's hello.

TL;DR you can't undo a cut/copy, what you can undo is a paste. What you're undoing in your question is the original entry into the cell.

JordanGS

Posted 2017-05-04T20:45:45.370

Reputation: 210

Just to clarify, I am not highlighting the entire cell. For example: Type "Hello World" into cell A1. Double click cell A1 to be able to edit the text inside it. Highlight only "Hello".

If you CtrlX now, you will cut "Hello", leaving "World" still in cell A1. If you Ctrl Z at this point, you will undo the cut, and "Hello" will return. – user7965483 – 2017-05-04T22:51:37.857

This is important information that's currently missing from your question. – I say Reinstate Monica – 2017-05-04T23:10:46.763

@user7965483 So what is your question? Why does "hello" return when you press CtrlZ? Because text and cell are two different entities. Text is copied/cut instantly whereas a cell is not, it's still there until you finish the paste operation. Because if you do CtrlX, CtrlC then CtrlZ on text, if will just be "Hello World" Again... If it does not function this way for you, then try Office Online 2016 (it's free) or update to 2016. It could be a bug with 2010. Most people won't have it to help you troubleshoot older versions of Office. – JordanGS – 2017-05-05T04:40:28.813

My question was originally exactly what I asked in the title. After asking, I figured out that the reason it was behaving this way was because of an additional Crtl C press. That information was really all I needed to make the phenomenon stop happening. However, like I said elsewhere, no other office program behaves this way. You say it may be a bug with 2010. That may be the best answer I'm going to get. – user7965483 – 2017-05-05T16:11:14.187

That seems to be 'works as designed' - CTRL+C copies what you have selected, which is nothing after the 'Cut'.

Aganju

Posted 2017-05-04T20:45:45.370

Reputation: 9 103

I can accept that this is what happens in Excel. However, I'd just like to point out that no other program behaves this way. If you push CTRL XCV in succession in Word or anything else. It will cut, copy nothing, and then paste what you cut. – user7965483 – 2017-05-04T22:57:44.480