Assign result to different cell

Hi all,

I'll ask a question first, then explain my intent incase there is a better way of achieving my end goal.

Question -
Is there a way of assigning the result of a formula, without entering anything into the destination cell?

I.e. I have values 1 and 2 in cells A1 and B1 respectively. In C1, I have the formula = A1 + B1, giving the result of 3 to appear.

I want cell D1 to now have the value of 3, without typing anything (i.e. =C1) in D1. Essentially it's assigning a formula result to a different cell, so only the value resides in that cell. Imagine I copied C1, went to D1 and said paste -> special -> values. I'm essentially trying to do this via formula.

Why? Can't you just paste special.... etc

Currently I have a horrible and tedious job. I'm transforming a scanned pdf, which has tables, into excel. When I copy and paste several lines of text, excel carries over the new line formatting and puts a tables contents into several (3, 4 .. 50) rows of excel cells. I need them all into one cell.

To get around this, I have set up an append document, where I paste in a location, and all the lines are appended into a single cell, using & and " ". I then wish to copy and paste this result into a master spreadsheet, completing the process for one table. Rinse + repeat 1000 odd times. Currently, unless I want to copy the formula of =A1 & " " & A2 ..... I need to copy and paste special, which is very time consuming. Yes I have assigned it to a macro, but having to switch between different copy / paste / paste special shortcuts is annoying between the append spreadsheet, master spreadsheet and pdf, being able to always simply copy / paste will speed up the already tedious process.

If I can assign the results of a formula into a different cell without having to type anything in, I can treat it as simply values which I can copy and paste, without having to worry about pasting special all the time.


Sorry for the long winded response.

Cheers.

Originally Posted by Peleus

Currently I have a horrible and tedious job. I'm transforming a scanned pdf, which has tables, into excel. When I copy and paste several lines of text, excel carries over the new line formatting and puts a tables contents into several (3, 4 .. 50) rows of excel cells. I need them all into one cell.

If you press F2 (or double-click the destination cell) before pasting, all copied lines of text will go into the one cell.

Beau Nydal