How do I remove a copy line in Excel?

In Excel, the term "copy line" usually refers to the animated border, sometimes called "marching ants," that appears around a cell or range of cells after you have copied it. To effectively "remove" this copy line means either getting rid of the border or clearing the copied content from Excel's memory (the clipboard).

Here's how to address both situations:

Removing the "Marching Ants" Border

The simplest way to remove the animated border around copied cells is to signal to Excel that you are finished with the copy operation, whether or not you have pasted the content.

• Press the Esc key: This is the most common and quickest method. Simply hit the Esc key on your keyboard. The marching ants border will disappear immediately, indicating that the copied range is no longer active for pasting.

Clearing the Excel Clipboard

While pressing Esc removes the visual border, the copied content might still reside in the Excel clipboard (and potentially the Windows clipboard). Clearing the clipboard ensures the data isn't accidentally pasted later and also removes the marching ants border if it was still present.

Excel has its own dedicated Clipboard pane that holds multiple copied items. You can clear this pane to fully remove copied data.

Here's how to clear the Excel clipboard, based on the provided information:

1. Open the Clipboard Pane: Locate the "Clipboard" group on the "Home" tab in the Excel ribbon. Click the small arrow icon located in the lower-right corner of this group.
2. View Copied Items: The "Clipboard" pane will open, typically on the left side of your Excel window. This pane shows a list of items you have recently copied within Excel.
3. Clear Individual Items: To remove specific copied items, click the small down arrow next to the item you want to delete in the Clipboard pane and select "Delete".
4. Clear All Items: To quickly clear everything from the Excel clipboard, click the "Clear All" button at the top of the Clipboard pane.

Clearing the clipboard this way ensures that the copied data is no longer available for pasting within Excel.

In summary, pressing Esc is the fastest way to stop the "marching ants" visual effect, while clearing the Clipboard pane (especially using "Clear All") removes the actual copied data from Excel's memory.