Formatting Issues

How to Stop Excel from Adding Quotation Marks When Pasting into Notepad

WPS Content Manager Oct 12, 2026 871 views

Question details

The user needs to prevent Excel from automatically adding unwanted double quotation marks around cell content when copying data and pasting it into Notepad.

How to Stop Excel from Adding Quotation Marks When Pasting into Notepad

Product: Microsoft Excel
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Copying cell content that contains line breaks or tabs from Excel and pasting it into a plain text editor like Notepad.
Observed behavior: Excel formats the clipboard content as delimited text, causing Notepad to display the pasted text wrapped in double quotation marks.

Before you start

Check if your Excel cells contain hidden line breaks (Alt+Enter) or tab characters, as these trigger Excel's automatic delimited clipboard formatting.

Solution 1Recommended

Use Microsoft Word or WPS Writer as an Intermediary

This simple workaround strips the Excel-specific clipboard formatting by pasting the text into a word processor before moving it to Notepad.

Since there is no built-in Excel setting to turn off this clipboard behavior, using a word processor acts as a text-cleaning middle step. This method is highly effective for quick copy-paste tasks.

Copy from Excel

Select the cells you want to copy in your Excel spreadsheet and press Ctrl+C.

Paste into a Word Processor

Open a blank document in Microsoft Word or WPS Writer and press Ctrl+V to paste the copied cells.

Copy the Text Again

Highlight the newly pasted text inside the word processor document and press Ctrl+C to copy it to your clipboard.

Paste into Notepad

Open Notepad and press Ctrl+V. The text will now paste cleanly without the surrounding quotation marks.

Use Microsoft Word or WPS Writer as an Intermediary

Quick Formatting: If you paste as 'Keep Text Only' in Word, it further ensures that no hidden table formatting is carried over to Notepad.

Solution 2

Use a VBA Macro Workaround for Large Datasets

For processing large amounts of data (e.g., 70+ rows) where manual copying is tedious, a custom VBA script can push clean text directly to the clipboard.

Free Microsoft Office alternative

Try WPS Office for Seamless Data Handling

If you frequently encounter formatting limitations in Microsoft Excel, consider switching to WPS Office. It provides a lightweight, highly compatible, and completely free alternative to Microsoft Office, ensuring smooth document management.

1. Download WPS Office: Visit the official WPS website to download and install the free office suite.
2. Open Your Excel File: Launch WPS Spreadsheet and open your existing .xlsx or .csv files directly without conversion.
3. Enjoy Seamless Workflows: Use the built-in WPS Writer to quickly clean up clipboard formatting before pasting into plain text editors.

Fully compatible with Microsoft Excel formats including .xlsx, .xls, and .csv.Seamlessly copy and paste data between WPS Spreadsheet and WPS Writer to strip unwanted formatting.Free, lightweight, and features a familiar user interface that requires no learning curve.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Excel add these quotation marks automatically?

Excel formats clipboard content as delimited text to preserve data integrity when a cell contains a line break (Alt+Enter), carriage return, or tab. This ensures the cell contents stay together, but it causes plain text editors like Notepad to display quotation marks around the value.

Is there an Excel setting to turn off quotation marks when copying?

No, there is currently no standard built-in setting or checkbox in Excel to disable this clipboard formatting behavior. You must rely on workarounds like pasting into Word first or using a VBA macro.

Can I use Find and Replace in Notepad to remove the quotes?

Yes, you can paste the text into Notepad, press Ctrl+H to open Find and Replace, type a single double-quote (") in the 'Find what' field, leave 'Replace with' blank, and click 'Replace All'. However, be aware that this will also delete any legitimate quotation marks that are meant to be in your text.

Document & File Issues