The present invention relates to the field of information processing by digital computers, and more particularly to a method and system, in an electronic spreadsheet, for handling user-defined options during a copy/cut - paste operation when the source range of cells comprises one or a plurality of cells with user-defined options and when the destination environment does not necessarily defines the same user-defined options as the ones defined in the source environment. The method of handling user-defined options during a copy and paste or a cut and paste operation comprises the steps of:

defining one or a plurality of combinations, each combination comprising one or a plurality of options;
defining a source cell range and a destination cell range;
defining an operation to execute, either copy and paste, or cut and paste;
for each defined option combination comprising one or a plurality of options, if at least one cell in the source cell range comprises a reference to said one or plurality of options,

computing the content of each cell within the source cell range according to said one or plurality of options;
creating a version instance of the destination cell range;
copying the source range of cells into said version instance.
when the last option combination is copied,

clearing the source cell range if the operation is cut and paste.