XL97: PasteSpecial Method Activates Target Sheet

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This article was previously published under Q158360

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SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel 97, if you run a Visual Basic for Applications macro that uses the PasteSpecial method, you may find that the wrong worksheet becomes activated. This may cause problems if your macro assumes that a particular sheet is still active.

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CAUSE

This problem occurs because, in Microsoft Excel 97, the PasteSpecial method activates the sheet into which you are pasting information (the "target sheet"). In earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, the PasteSpecial method does not activate the target sheet.

Note that this problem occurs only when information is pasted into a sheet other than that from which it was copied.

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WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs.
If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Partner or Microsoft Advisory Services. For more information, visit these Microsoft Web sites:

Microsoft Certified Partners - https://partner.microsoft.com/global/30000104 (https://partner.microsoft.com/global/30000104)

Microsoft Advisory Services - http://support.microsoft.com/gp/advisoryservice (http://support.microsoft.com/gp/advisoryservice)

For more information about the support options that are available and about how to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;cntactms) If you need your Visual Basic macro to copy information from one sheet, PasteSpecial the information into another sheet, and keep the original sheet active, you will need to add two lines of code to the macro. These lines of code keep track of the original sheet and reactivate it after the PasteSpecial method is complete.

For example, if your original macro looks like this

   Sub CopyAndPasteSpecial1()
       Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1:B5").Copy
       Sheets("Sheet2").Range("A1").PasteSpecial xlValues
   End Sub

you will need to add two lines to the macro:

   Sub CopyAndPasteSpecial2()

       'This new line remembers the name of the original sheet.
       Set xOriginalSheet = ActiveSheet

       Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1:B5").Copy
       Sheets("Sheet2").Range("A1").PasteSpecial xlValues

       'This new line activates the original sheet.
       xOriginalSheet.Activate

   End Sub

The modified code will work in all versions of Microsoft Excel, including Microsoft Excel 97.

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This problem no longer occurs in Microsoft Excel 2000.

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MORE INFORMATION

In Microsoft Excel, you can use the PasteSpecial method in a Visual Basic macro when you want to paste copied information in a certain way. For example, if you copy a range of cells that contains formulas, and then you want to paste just the results of the formulas, you could use a line of code similar to the following:

   Range("A1").PasteSpecial xlValues

You can even paste information into a different sheet or into a sheet in another workbook, by adding a reference to the sheet and/or workbook to the line of code. For example:

   Workbooks("Book2").Sheets("Sheet3").Range("A1").PasteSpecial xlValues

If you do this in Microsoft Excel 97, the target sheet (in this case, [Book2]Sheet3) will be activated. This may cause problems if your macro assumes that the original sheet is still active.

If this change in behavior causes problems, use the information in the Workaround section to force your macro to reactivate the original sheet.

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APPLIES TO

Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

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kbbug kbpending kbprogramming KB158360

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Retired KB Content Disclaimer

This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.

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