Excel online- Unable to paste data in cells containing formula

[Bhaskar Raj]

Hi,


I am facing issue in updating text in a cell containing formula.

Formula used is
=IF(B2<>"","Enter user E-Mail ID here","")


As intended, when B2 is not blank the Cell C2 will display text "Enter user E-Mail ID here". If I paste Email ID from outside workbook in C2, the email ID gets displayed for few seconds and then get reverted back to the display text "Enter user E-Mail ID here".
•Issue is being faced only when we are pasting email ID or web urls. Even on manually typing Email Ids, same issue is being faced.
•Issue is only with cells containing formula. With blank cells, this is working fine.

Until last week, this was working fine and I am clueless what could have caused this issue.

Observations-
•only the hyperlink is getting created by ctrl+v, the display text or cell content remains the formula generated text.
•if I perform ctrl+v twice the display text is getting updated, however the change is not getting saved. If I refresh / reopen the online workbook, the display text is getting reset to formula based output.
•the paste is working fine if edit is performed through "edit in excel" option so issue is only when we are using "Edit in Browser" option.
•This is replicable on multiple excel online files and on different systems so this cant be a local issue.


System details -
Microsoft OneDrive Version 2018 (Build 17.3.7294.0108)
Office 2016.

Please let me know if there is any such known issue and what could be the workaround or possible fix.

Regards,
Bhaskar Raj

 

[Chihiro]

Hmm, as far as I can tell, this is due to how clipboard is dealt with in browser based programs. Often when you copy paste from external program, formatting etc is lost.

However, Excel Online then tries to apply hyperlink by interpreting emails/urls. But with formula cell, it's executed after paste operation is done... and overrides text to display in HyperLink... This can be bug, or just a limitation.

Workaround is to paste in url/email to blank cell and then copy that cell within Excel Online and paste over the cell.

Or also have copy source open in another tab of Excel Online and copy paste from there.

This ensures that Excel Online correctly pastes over with formatting and other cell context info.

 

[Bhaskar Raj]

This can't be limitation as it was working fine till last week. I am unable to trace any change done from user end or OneDrive updates either.
Thanks for the suggested workarounds ,I will try these as soon I am in office tomorrow and will post the outcome.