Is there a way to copy an Excel worksheet without copying all of the cell styles in the source workbook to the target workbook?

Question

The title pretty much says it. I have an Excel document with tons of randomly named styles that I didn't create but that I want to copy a worksheet from. When I do, it drags all of those styles into my target workbook, which I don't want. None of the styles themselves are used on the actual sheet I am copying.

If I can't prevent this, is there a way to delete a bunch of styles as a group, rather than selecting each and deleting it?

This other question of mine is similar, in that the problem I'm having is that I get garbage I don't want (and that I don't see that any user wants) when I copy a worksheet:

How do I copy a worksheet without creating local copies of workbook-scoped named formulas?

It earned a "tumbleweed" badge, but perhaps whoever answers this will have an answer for it as well...

Solution

You should be able to select all of the cells in the original worksheet, copy them, and then "paste special" (Edit > Paste Special) in the target workbook. From within the "paste special" dialog, you can specify only formulas, values, etc. and omit style information.

Disclaimer: I haven't tried this with Excel 2007 or higher. I'm stuck on the old version.

Comments

[Manoj Varma]

Actually, I want everything except the styles in the source workbook that the source sheet doesn't use, so it can be even simpler. I can just select all of the cells in the source sheet, copy them, and paste them without Paste...Special. It does create a "Normal2" style, but it's just one to delete. I don't know why I've never thought to copy a sheet by copying all of its cells instead of copying the whole tab by the "Move or Copy" dialog. Thanks! Definite +1, and I'll formally accept this answer if nobody has anything even more direct.

[Manoj Varma]

Accepted. While not precisely the solution, it's good enough for me. I'm not trying to automate this - just to eliminate the inconvenience of deleting all the superfluous styles. Obviously, this method won't copy code behind the sheet, etc., but I don't care about that.