MS Word Tables into MS Publisher

[AldoRaine]

Hi everyone! I´m using MS Publisher 2007 for putting up together new dictionary, but a little problem just came up since I don´t know how to effectively import my source MS Word tables into Publisher.
Originally I started working in MS Word, where I created table for every letter of the alphabet (4 columns, numerous rows - usually around 200). Now I need to transfer it into Publisher, but have troubles with overflowing the table rows to the next page. I´ve tried Importing a Word Document, but it doesn´t work properly with the tables. I hope there is some way to do it without manually copying every single page, risking over-doing the entire document for the sake of little mistake somewhere in the middle that would cause shift of the rows.
I had no idea, that it is gonna be such a problematic matter. I need to put the whole dictionary into Publisher for final refinement before printing.
Do you guys have any tips how should I solve this issue?
Thanks very much for help!

 

[FredWagner]

If the pages in Word have clean segments of the 200 line tables, you could 'grab' each page as a graphic, and paste it onto a page in Publisher. You can crop the images in Publisher to remove the Word Headers/Footers if any.

Fred Wagner

 

[Makonz]

Hi Aldo Raine

Did you ever resolve this issue. Sorry about the late reply but I have not checked back to this site for a while but I have duplicated what you are doing and I think that this is a relatively easy fix unless you have already sorted it or use a work around. Anyway let me know if you are still looking for a solution and if so I will post a directions list.

Regards

Makonz

 

[AldoRaine]

Hi guys! First, thanks Fred for your advice. Makonz, I was also out for last 2 weeks and haven´t solved the problem yet. Now I get back to work and I would appreciate your suggestion on how to fix it, if you could. Thanks a lot.
Regards

 

[FredWagner]

Aldo -
Is the Publisher feature you need "Print as Booklet" ? If not, have you inquired in the Word forum - there might be a way to do the refinements you need while keeping the document in Word, rather than migrating to Publisher.
Another possibility is to use Acrobat Pro - you could bring the Word doc into Acrobat and use the Header/Footer, Page Numbering, watermark, and other features there, while leaving Word as the source.

Fred Wagner

 

[Makonz]

Hello Aldo Raine

Sorry again I have had delay as I went on overseas holiday with my family for 3 weeks on the day that you sent your reply and this is the first time I have checked back here since.
So anyway even though you may have already figured a solution I will outline what I think you will need to do. It is some work but thankfully not too much.
So you will have noticed that Publisher does not handle long tables like Word in that Word will automatically insert a new page and continue a table if you add more rows. Publisher in this regards is more WYSIWYG so for the page that you are working on if the table is too large it just extends out into the working space outside the printable area. The good thing is that Publisher is far easier to work with tables in than Word - easier to format or add columns and rows, easier to resize and adjust placement. Adding pages doesn't happen automatically but inserting new pages is pretty simple and using the duplicate function you can insert preformatted pages which should be reasonable easy to paste your other work into.

First up in your publication you should format a page that you can use as a template - that is your your 4 columns wide by what ever number of columns fit comfortably on a page. You don't have to be too fussy as you can add or delete lines as necessary. So say you start with 30 rows on a page. Resize the table and individual columns as desired. With the whole table or any portion selected adjust the formatting, text style, alignment etc and you can also adjust the cell margins and vertical alignment via Format > Table > Cell Properties.
The Arrange menu allows you to adjust the page guides ( which do no print ) and use the 'snap to guides' function to assist layout accuracy if you wish to.

Then for each letter in your dictionary you just insert as many pages as you need for the number of terms / words that you have for that letter via Insert > Duplicate page and then type the number of your template page
( This will be displayed on the bottom of the screen on the page icon - it is normally easiest to leave this as your 1st page). For ease of navigation around the document change the page name on the page navigator at the bottom of the screen by right clicking the page icon then clicking Rename and typing in the new name such as A1, A2 etc.

Then you will have to copy the text from the Word document and paste it into the new table - this is the bit of work that you cant avoid but it can be done en bloc, i.e. select everything in a group of cells and paste it into the corresponding page that you have created so it shouldn't be to arduous.
You may even want to copy the whole table for a letter range and paste it into the working space on the side of the page in Publisher and then select and 'cut' the sections out of the one and paste them into the other. This will have the added benefit that you will be able to keep track of where you are at and you wont have to flick from one to the other.

I would tend to leave some free space on each page to allow for adding new material as you come upon it or as you add words to your dictionary. You can easily add rows via Table > Insert ... and as you type in a cell it will automatically grow vertically as required
( unless you turn this option off )

I am not sure if you want the table cell lines to show or not but if you do these are really simple to format compared to Word via the Format > Table > Colours and Lines tab for the cells you have selected. You should most probably do this at the template page stage and then you will get a consistent look throughout the whole document.

Again apologies for the long delay to reply. If you want any particular detail explaining further please ask.


Regards

Makonz