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Excel - Excel Auto Filter Copy Issue: How to Ensure Only Visible Rows are Copied - Episode 445

800 views · Published 9 June 2009 · 2:52 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial: Excel Auto Filter Copy Issue: How to Ensure Only Visible Rows are Copied.

Welcome to another episode of the MrExcel netcast! I'm Bill Jelen and today we have a question from Mike in Oklahoma City about auto filters in Excel. Mike has noticed that when he copies filtered rows, sometimes only the filtered rows are copied and other times all of the data is copied. Let's take a closer look at this issue and find a solution.

To start, I want to remind our viewers in Canada and Australia to catch me on Call for Help tonight on G4 Tech TV and the How To channel, respectively. Now, let's dive into Mike's question. I have turned on auto filters by going to Data, Filter, and then Auto Filters. This allows me to select specific records to view. However, when I copy and paste the filtered rows, sometimes all of the data is copied instead of just the filtered rows.

After trying a few different things, I found a solution that works every time. It's called "visible cells only" and can be accessed through the Edit menu. Simply select the entire data set, go to Edit, then Go To, and choose the Special button. From there, select "visible cells only" and click OK. Now, when you copy and paste, only the filtered rows will be copied.

But wait, there's a shortcut! If you select the entire data set and type Alt + ;, it will automatically select only the visible cells. This is a great time-saving tip for those who frequently work with filtered data. And remember, if you have a question you'd like answered on a future netcast, you can leave me a voicemail, send me an email, or reach out to me on Skype.

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A question from Mike in Oklahoma City. Excel is supposed to copy only the visible rows in a dataset where AutoFilter is turned on. However, sometimes this does not work. Episode 445 shows the simple shortcut to make sure that you have only the visible rows.

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Table of Contents:
(00:00) Introduction
(00:21) Question from Mike in Oklahoma City
(00:34) Issue with auto filters and copying filtered rows
(01:01) Solution: Using visible cells only
(02:06) Shortcut for visible cells only
(02:16) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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