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Can't cut and paste between different documents

Whether on my Macbook Pro or my desktop Mac, I can't cut and paste between different Excel spreadsheets. I've tried using the tool bar options, then right clicking my mouse, to Copy and Paste and finally just Cmd + C and Cmd + V. I can get the area I want selected, but when I try pasting I get the message "Your browser can't access the clipboard, so use these shortcuts: Ctrl C, Ctrl V".

I spoke to Apple who just clarified they use Cmd, not Ctrl, but thought it was a Dropbox problem. Anyone have any ideas?

(I lost a whole load of files as well - all vanished at 11.22 yesterday when I was nowhere near my computer. Recovered them, but a bit nervewracking!)

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Sanchez

Hey @Perfect, welcome to our community!

You’ll need to open these files with a local or online app that can edit them.

If you’re trying to do this while viewing your files online, on our website, you may be seeing the preview, in which you can not edit your files.

Have a great weekend

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Chris_J

Hello, thanks for reaching out to us, first off, it sounds like you are using the web interface (Browser) to move, upload files, Browser is not really designed to accept pasting of files since it's not a file manager. Have you tried to drag and drop? you can drag the file or files and drop it on the web page for it to upload.

Have you considered using a Desktop Client?

Let me know if this helps

hotdiggetydog

Tried opening two pages side by side and dragging and dropping, but couldn't make it move.

Chris_J

Okay, I see what is the issue. You are not uploading from your computer to Dropbox. Do your files reside only on Dropbox Servers? you need to use the move option. Go to the file and you will notice 3 dots at the far right-hand side, click on them and a menu will show and select move, then follow the prompt and select the final destination.

Do you have a Dropbox icon in your system tray? if so, did you know that you are running a Desktop client that syncs all files inside your Dropbox folder that is a literal folder on your computer? If you do have an icon in system tray, click on it and select an icon that looks like a folder, that will take you to your Dropbox folder. Any files you see there is synced to Dropbox Servers (Cloud) and to any linked Devices.

hotdiggetydog

Yes, my files reside only in Dropbox, as they are used by various members of our charity team. But I'm not trying to move the whole document, I only want to copy part of one Excel spreadsheet (about 20 lines) and move it into another Excel spreadsheet. I don't think I have the option to move part of the document when it is opened up from Dropbox in Excel online?

Chris_J

Dropbox is just a syncing tool and yes, it has features that use Excel but as far as features that Excel uses, it's not Dropbox issue. I am not familiar with using Excel Online but once a file has changed, even adding a period, it will sync those changes to all linked devices.

Perfect

I didn't see an answer to copying a few cells or lines of data from one file (in Dropbox) to another OR even within the same file. Is this possible? I work on a Mac.

Chris_J

Hello Perfect

You should be able to,

Sanchez

Hey @Perfect, welcome to our community!

You’ll need to open these files with a local or online app that can edit them.

If you’re trying to do this while viewing your files online, on our website, you may be seeing the preview, in which you can not edit your files.

Have a great weekend

hotdiggetydog

Hi Sanchez

I think your answer may be a little confusing. It is perfectly possible to edit files in dropbox.com, once you have opened up from the preview, but there is still some limited functionality.

If you are using dropbox.com you cannot cut and paste between files. You can only do this when you have installed the Dropbox application, which downloads copies of all your files to your hard drive, and then open up two separate folders.

Happy Bank Holiday UKers

djulia

HI - I am trying to cut a line from one tab on my excel file through dropbox (on-line version of excel) and I can't paste onto another tab (not another document, same document, different tab). Is this a malfunction or an oversite in ability to edit?

Daphne

Hey there, @djulia. Sorry for the late follow up here on your query!

This kind of editing is possible via the online Microsoft Excel integration, although I would suggest to work within the same tab when working on the same file online.

For example, cutting a line from one tab and then pasting it in another, the web version may not be able to recognize you have pasted that text. In this case you may find that the text remains on the previous tab.

If you are still having this issue, please try cutting and pasting (within the same tab) using another browser, an incognito window and then clearing your browser cache and let me know if this helps.

Looking forward to your reply - Cheers!

world_darya

Could you please share what these apps are? and if I am using a computer?

In my case I can't copy text in .pages. Nor I can save these doc on my computer.

What can I do to work on the files normally without these restrictions (and the access by the author to edit etc I have).

Thanks

Darya

Daphne

Thanks for joining us here @world_darya!

Can you let me know how Dropbox comes into play with this? From the issues that you mentioned it might not be something related to Dropbox.

Since Pages are a Mac app, are you perhaps using a Windows device to open these files? It may be that you need to convert them into a file type that is compatible with your computer or open them in Microsoft Word instead if you don't have the Pages app installed.

You can check out more info about this here.

Let me know if you have any questions!