I have a spread sheet with formulas when I hi-light the contents and paste into another spread sheet all I get is the resultant values in the cells not the actual formula.

Have a look at Copy - Paste special - formua-las https://support.office.com/en-us/art...9-a76afcd5f5c3

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Yes I do know about paste special but if I open a new excel, hi-light the contents of the original then go to the new excel and select paste special I get a list box with the first 2 item being
Microsoft Office Excel Word Object
Picture (Enhanced Metafile)
Bitmap

See attached.

Attached Images

PasteSpecial.jpg (62.1 KB, 15 views)

a) Using Paste Special is granted only, when both excel files are in same Excel instance. So open the second file from same instance of excel (in case both files have same extension) - open the 1st file, then File>Open and open the 2nd file - and then copy your data.
b) When you have 2 Excel instances, then mostly works regular copy-paste, ie. copy data, and use Ctrl+V to paste. This copies not only formulas, but also formats. When you want to use Paste Special in this case, then copy data to new workseet in second file, copy from there data to right worksheet, and then delete the added worksheet.
c) Copy the worksheet from 1st file into 2nd file (open both files, in 1st file right-click on sheet tab, Copy or Move sheet, check copy field, select 2nd workbook as destination, OK - as I don't have Excel at moment, I am not sure I remember all names correctly). After that proceed in 2nd file as in variant b).