Pasting Excel column into Word table

I use Word 2002 and Windows XP

My problem is importing data from very large Excel-files into word-table. The Word-table has several columns that must keep their size and formatting.
The source-files (Excel) are very variable: sometimes only few rows, other times maybe hundreds of rows.

The user must be able to copy one column in Excel and paste it into one column in the table of the Word-template. But this doesn't work:

When pasting, if the cursor is in one field of Word-template, the result is only one pasted cell. If the column is highlighted, Word pastes as many cells as there is room for: If the row count of the word table is smaller than in excel, the rest remain un-pasted (sorry, my english is poor...). If the row count is bigger than in excel, word pastes the data so many times, that all the rows are filled.

To have a correct result, user should highlight exactly as many fields as there are in the source-data. And that is not an option...

Is this effort doomed?

I hope someone can figure out what I mean...

Eija

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RWlqYQ==?=,

I use Word 2002 and Windows XP

My problem is importing data from very large Excel-files into word-table. The Word-table
has several columns that must keep their size and formatting.
The source-files (Excel) are very variable: sometimes only few rows, other times maybe
hundreds of rows.

The user must be able to copy one column in Excel and paste it into one column in the
table of the Word-template. But this doesn't work:

When pasting, if the cursor is in one field of Word-template, the result is only one
pasted cell. If the column is highlighted, Word pastes as many cells as there is room for:
If the row count of the word table is smaller than in excel, the rest remain un-pasted
(sorry, my english is poor...). If the row count is bigger than in excel, word pastes the
data so many times, that all the rows are filled.

To have a correct result, user should highlight exactly as many fields as there are in
the source-data. And that is not an option...

Is this effort doomed?

As far as using Word's built-in capabilities, no, I don't think you can do what you
describe. I assume you've tried what the Paste Options button offers?

I think your best chance would be:
- copy the column in Excel
- Go to an empty space in the Word document and paste, so that you've got a Word table
- select that single column and cut
- select a cell or column in your existing Word table and paste

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the
newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

Just as I thought...

Yes, I have tested the paste button from every angle.

Copying the column to different place in Word at first is a good idea and I'm sure I can use it in other jobs, but here it is no help: This is a template that will be used by bunch of engineers. They will not start doing any tricks with their data only to make it look good.

I must give up and make the template with Excel, and even with that I'll have to do many compromises, because can't make two different headers (tables in both) and a table in the first page footer also.

Thank you very much for your answer. I'll use it in other tasks and teach the trick to our secretaries, too.

Eija


"Cindy M -WordMVP-" kirjoitti:

As far as using Word's built-in capabilities, no, I don't think you can do what you
describe. I assume you've tried what the Paste Options button offers?

I think your best chance would be:
- copy the column in Excel
- Go to an empty space in the Word document and paste, so that you've got a Word table
- select that single column and cut
- select a cell or column in your existing Word table and paste

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the
newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RWlqYQ==?=,

Copying the column to different place in Word at first is a good idea and I'm sure I
can use it in other jobs, but here it is no help: This is a template that will be used by
bunch of engineers. They will not start doing any tricks with their data only to make it
look good.

Yes, I can imagine engineers wouldn't be too happy... The only other thing I can suggest
is that you'd use VBA (a macro) to transfer the data. If the user could, for example,
select the range in Excel, then click a button, and code would
- check the size of the selected range
- insert the required additional column in Word
- add the needed rows
- then transfer the cell contents

I must give up and make the template with Excel, and even with that I'll have to do
many compromises, because can't make two different headers (tables in both) and a table
in the first page footer also.

Thank you very much for your answer. I'll use it in other tasks and teach the trick to
our secretaries, too.


Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the
newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)