Home / Monte Carlo / Model Building / Copy and Paste Markings
Copy and Paste Markings¶
From Excel click...
QXL Monte Carlo New > Design > Copy and Paste Inputs/Outputs > Copy Monte Carlo Inputs/Outputs
QXL Monte Carlo New > Design > Copy and Paste Inputs/Outputs > Paste Monte Carlo Inputs/Outputs
QXL Monte Carlo New > Design > Copy and Paste Inputs/Outputs > Copy Monte Carlo Sheet
Three commands for moving marked cells without losing their markings.
Excel's own copy and paste does not carry a marking. Copying a marked cell with Ctrl+C and pasting it gives you the cell's value or formula and nothing else: the new cell is not an input or an output. These three commands are the supported route when you want the markings to come too.
Three commands are described here rather than three pages because they are one feature, and they share their rules: the same checks, the same refusals, and the same words for them.
Copy and Paste Monte Carlo Inputs/Outputs¶
For a block of cells.
- Select one rectangular block of cells and press Copy Monte Carlo Inputs/Outputs. It runs Excel's own copy on the selection, so the cell contents travel exactly as you expect, and records which markings are in the block. There is no confirmation: copying changes nothing.
- Select the top-left cell of where it goes and press Paste Monte Carlo Inputs/Outputs.
The paste puts the cell contents down through Excel and then writes the markings onto the new cells. A refused paste changes nothing at all.
The copy has to still be good¶
The copied cells have changed or are no longer available. Copy them again.
That appears when there is no pending copy, when the source workbook or its sheet has been closed or deleted, or when Excel's copy mode is no longer active. Any edit anywhere clears Excel's copy mode, which is the signal that the copied contents may no longer be what was recorded.
One block at a time¶
Copy Monte Carlo Inputs/Outputs needs a single rectangular selection. Select one block of cells and try again.
The same sentence names the Paste command when it is the paste that has more than one area selected.
Where the paste will not go¶
| Situation | What it says |
|---|---|
| the target overlaps the copied cells | The paste target overlaps the copied cells. Pick a target that does not overlap them. |
| the target is the hidden Quantum XL sheet | That sheet is used by Quantum XL and cannot be a paste target. |
| the block would run off the sheet | The copied cells do not fit there: the paste would run past the edge of the worksheet. Pick a target cell further up or further left. |
| the target has merged cells | Merged cells are not supported. The paste target includes merged cells (...). Unmerge them, or pick a different target, and try again. |
| the target sheet is protected | This worksheet is protected. Unprotect it, or use an unprotected worksheet, and try again. |
| the workbook's structure is protected | This workbook's structure is protected. Unprotect the workbook and try again. |
Pasting into another workbook¶
A marking may link a value to a cell. If that cell was not part of the block you copied, the link cannot follow the marking into a different workbook, and the paste is refused:
Cannot paste into another workbook: the input Price reads a value from a cell that was not copied. Include that cell in the copy, or paste within this workbook.
Include the linked cells in the block, or paste within the same workbook.
Two things it tells you after a successful paste¶
A correlation that could only be partly carried. A correlation is between two inputs, so copying only one of them leaves the copy uncorrelated:
The input Price is correlated. The pasted copy is not.
An Empirical variable's worksheet the destination did not have is copied across automatically, before the markings are written, so the pasted input still finds its data.
Copy Monte Carlo Sheet¶
For a whole worksheet, to another open workbook or a new one.
Unlike Excel's own sheet copy, which leaves the duplicate unmarked, this one carries the markings. A copy within the same workbook takes the identical path, so it is marked too.
The dialog states what is going before you choose where:
The worksheet 'Model' is copied whole, and everything Quantum XL has marked on it is copied to the destination with it:
followed by a count of each kind actually present: marked inputs, marked outputs, correlations between inputs, custom distributions and Empirical variables. Only the kinds that are there are listed, so a sheet with no correlation is not told it has none.
When an Empirical variable is among them:
Each Empirical variable's own worksheet is copied as well, unless the destination workbook already has it.
And when there is nothing marked at all:
The worksheet 'Model' is copied whole. Quantum XL has nothing marked on it, so only its cells are copied.
Under that, Copy it to: lists every open workbook, with New workbook as the last entry.
What it refuses¶
The hidden Quantum XL sheet is not a sheet to copy:
That sheet is used by Quantum XL and cannot be copied.
And the cross-workbook link rule applies with the sheet as the block:
Cannot copy this sheet into another workbook: the input Price reads a value from a cell that is not on this sheet. Copy within this workbook, or move that value onto this sheet.
Related¶
- Mark Input and Mark Output.
- Unmark, to take markings off cells.