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Old 10-02-2013, 04:04 AM
GracieB GracieB is offline Pasting tables from Excel 2010 into Word 2010 - How to fix column widths? Windows 7 64bit Pasting tables from Excel 2010 into Word 2010 - How to fix column widths? Office 2010 32bit
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Unhappy Pasting tables from Excel 2010 into Word 2010 - How to fix column widths?

Hi there,

Sorry if this seems a basic question, but I have an issue which is driving me nuts, and I would really appreciate any help anyone could offer.

At work, I regularly copy a table from an Excel spreadsheet to a Word document; the spreadsheet is always the same format, as each is a copy of the same original file - likewise with the Word document. But, Word always pastes the table in with different column widths each time - even if I paste in different sections of one worksheet of the same Excel file. I can't understand why it chooses these arbitrary column widths!

What I would like to do is set up Word/Office so that whenever I paste an Excel table into a document, it will paste it in with fixed column widths that I determine. I did try having the 'first line' of the table permanently in the document, but unfortunately the tables I am pasting have some formatting that doesn't copy across properly if I do it this way.

It would also be great if it would paste with a specified borders setting (I use Grid), rather than copying any missing borders from the Excel original.

I have attached a document showing what happens when I copy 2 sections of one table into the document (I've disguised it, as this is what I do at work, but it gives the general idea).

Please, can anyone help? I do this thing every day at work, and every time, I have to resize the columns by hand!



Thanks,

GracieB
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File Type: docx Test table.docx (15.6 KB, 11 views)
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Old 10-02-2013, 05:09 AM
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macropod macropod is offline Pasting tables from Excel 2010 into Word 2010 - How to fix column widths? Windows 7 32bit Pasting tables from Excel 2010 into Word 2010 - How to fix column widths? Office 2010 32bit
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AFAIK the issue is due to the fact you have sufficient data in some cells that Word's auto-resize function changes column widths to accommodate as much as it can without wrapping. If you paste using Paste Special>Excel Object, you should get something that more accurately reflects what you already have in Excel. Plus you get the ability to re-scale the pasted object and have the contents re-scale also without the basic formatting (eg line-wrapping, etc) change.
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Old 10-02-2013, 05:29 AM
GracieB GracieB is offline Pasting tables from Excel 2010 into Word 2010 - How to fix column widths? Windows 7 64bit Pasting tables from Excel 2010 into Word 2010 - How to fix column widths? Office 2010 32bit
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Quote:
Originally Posted by macropod View Post
AFAIK the issue is due to the fact you have sufficient data in some cells that Word's auto-resize function changes column widths to accommodate as much as it can without wrapping. If you paste using Paste Special>Excel Object, you should get something that more accurately reflects what you already have in Excel. Plus you get the ability to re-scale the pasted object and have the contents re-scale also without the basic formatting (eg line-wrapping, etc) change.
Hi, thanks for the suggestion, but I'm afraid exactly the same thing happens if I paste it as an Excel item - still random column widths depending on the contents. Arg!
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Old 10-02-2013, 05:33 AM
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Originally Posted by GracieB View Post
Hi, thanks for the suggestion, but I'm afraid exactly the same thing happens if I paste it as an Excel item - still random column widths depending on the contents. Arg!
Are you sure the column widths for both pasted objects are the same in Excel? When pasted as an Excel item, the object does not become a Word table and is thus not subject to Word's table re-sizing behaviour.
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Old 10-02-2013, 05:48 AM
GracieB GracieB is offline Pasting tables from Excel 2010 into Word 2010 - How to fix column widths? Windows 7 64bit Pasting tables from Excel 2010 into Word 2010 - How to fix column widths? Office 2010 32bit
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Originally Posted by macropod View Post
Are you sure the column widths for both pasted objects are the same in Excel? When pasted as an Excel item, the object does not become a Word table and is thus not subject to Word's table re-sizing behaviour.
Hi Paul,

Yes, I am working from one spreadsheet, with maybe 200 rows. If I paste one section from, say Row 20 to Row 35, then another from Row 150 to Row 170, they will often paste into Word with different widths, even though they are from the same sheet. is it possible that some glitch in the formatting of the spreadsheet has led to this problem, do you think?
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Old 10-02-2013, 05:57 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GracieB View Post
I am working from one spreadsheet, with maybe 200 rows. If I paste one section from, say Row 20 to Row 35, then another from Row 150 to Row 170, they will often paste into Word with different widths, even though they are from the same sheet. is it possible that some glitch in the formatting of the spreadsheet has led to this problem, do you think?
I doubt the worksheet format is an issue (unless, perhaps, there are horizontally-merged cells involved.

In my testing I am unable to reproduce the behaviour you describe when pasting different blocks of cells from the same columns. Differences in text formatting, text wrapping & vertically-merged cells, for example, make no difference to the size of the pasted object or its column widths in Word.
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Old 10-02-2013, 06:06 AM
GracieB GracieB is offline Pasting tables from Excel 2010 into Word 2010 - How to fix column widths? Windows 7 64bit Pasting tables from Excel 2010 into Word 2010 - How to fix column widths? Office 2010 32bit
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Thanks for trying, Paul, appreciate it. Is there anywhere else you would recommend that I look for suggestions?

Also, is there not a universal setting in Word, where I can say something like, when inserting a table, make Column A 3 cm, Column B 6 cm, Column C 7 cm, etc, etc? I am thinking of people writing papers and books, who would want all the figures formatted identically, seems to me there would be a setting for this?
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Old 10-02-2013, 06:24 AM
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No, there is no 'universal' setting for this, especially not for pasted tables/objects.

To some extent, the behaviour is a by-product of a Word setting that automatically resizes tables to fit their contents (found under Table|Properties|Options). For each pasted table, you might be able to get the results you're after by unchecking that property and setting the table's 'preferred width' to whatever your preference is. Anything fancier for multiple tables would probably require a macro.
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