Cut/Copy and Paste Problems in PowerPoint

Anonymous
2013-09-30T02:03:09+00:00

PowerPoint will not allow me to paste anything into a slide.  I have tried text into a text box, shapes, entire slides.  It allows me to copy or cut, but when I try to paste it is greyed out or does nothing when I use Command+V on my MacBook Pro.  I am running Office 2011 Home & Student and copy and paste work fine in Word and Xcel.  I have tried to reinstall the software and that didn.t help either... Any ideas?

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-09-22T22:17:28+00:00

    I am surprised that this problem is still going in 2 years later.

    However I appear to be the only Windows user.  I am on Windows 8, I am on MS Office Professional Plus 2013.

    I am a power user of most of the Office applications and I have to say this is annoying in the extreme.  As long as I stay inside PPT, I have found that Control-D has the effect of Control-C (or X) and Control-V.  Why in the world would you take that away???

    Most annoying.

    An unrelated rant on the side:

    There are some things I particularly like about the new PPT - thank you - however I wish you would STOP DUMBING IT DOWN so that it takes four clicks to do something that 1-2 clicks used to be able to do.  Why do I have to constantly reactivate a specific ribbon over and over and over again?  I add some things to the Quick Access bar, but that doesn't always work for things that are now buried 4 levels deep.  And if you would figure out bullets once and for all, the world would appreciate it.

    -End rant-

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-06-20T01:39:55+00:00

    Great help, hansdh!

    Some two years ago I endured this issue for weeks. I had to use Keynote to edit objects, since I couldn't leave Powerpoint because the whole company used it. I've finally managed to fix it, but had tried so many different solutions that I couldn't know exactly what has done the job.

    Then it happened again this week. I searched the web for some time, only to find the same solutions I was sure haven't worked two years ago. Today, I had to finish a project report, and gave it another try. Found your answer, uninstalled an app called TextExpander, which uses the clipboard to expand shortcuts, and cut and paste was back in Powerpoint.

    Saved me a lot of hassle, thanks!

    Will try to reinstall TextExpander, since I use it quite often, and see what happens.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-05-28T17:43:11+00:00

    I've noticed a problem on my new MBP (Late 2013) running OSX Yosemite 10.10.3 that caused this copy/paste problem, and other odd behavior in Outlook.

    What I discovered was that if I clicked an object in PowerPower, and quickly copied to the clipboard (in less than a second), then the object would copy fine; but if I waited > 1 second, copy would not work.

    Same is true of paste; i learned to very quickly copy/paste in under a second, and the function would work.

    Not sure if it's related, but I also noticed that in Outlook on Mac, my selected email message would randomly change to the top of the inbox. I would repeatedly click down the list, and in a second, it would pop back to the top.

    If the mouse event is indeed jumping off to some odd place after one second, then that could also be tricking PowerPoint into losing focus on the object copy/paste, causing it to fail.

    I use a USB two button Logitech mouse, in case it's relevant.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-04-08T16:12:24+00:00

    Running Office11 on a MBP late 2011. Had the same problem (command V would NOT paste) and I was able to solve it by turning off dictation. 

    Thanks for all who engaged in this dialogue

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