Number Spacing issue when copying form Excel to Word

[StNixon]

Hi all: I am trying to resolve a weird (some times intermittent) issue with Word Tables.
The lady, who creates a series of reports here, uses the rough draft that is prepared by the accountants. The accounts copy and paste the numbers from Excel spread sheets.
What is going wrong is that the numbers will run outside the boundaries of their Word Table and run into another number, this is only showing up when it is printed for the first time After that it also shows up in Word that way.
To clarify; 1000 and 1234 are two numbers copied to a Word Table. When printed it will appear as 10001234. This does not affect the entire Table, usually only one set of sells.

Is there a Global fix for this? Currently we have to delete and reenter the infomation (this works most of the time).
Thanks

 

[kjv1611]

Is it possible to just have the accountants leave the data in Excel, and then let the one lady handle putting it together in Word? If you can manage that, then finding a workable solution may be much easier.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

If more than one COLUMN is copied, the 'space' between the values is not a SPACE at all. Rather, it is a TAB.

And the paste result depends on the paste method in MS Word. In some cases, a table results. In other cases, no table.

So you really have not provided enough information to make an informed reply.

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[SkipVought]

In addition, there are several different Paste Options in Tools > Options - Edit TAB -- Cut and paste options SETTINGS including one that directly mentions pasting data from Excel.

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[StNixon]

kvj1161: Not possible as a lot of this work is done offsite and emaild to her, and some of the origional Excel files are only temporarly accessed by the accounts.

SkipVought: I am not sure what other information you need, but I will try to see if the information is copied from several cells at one time or only one cell at a time.

I get the feeling that they just highlight the information in Excel and either right click copy or ctrl-c copy and then paste it into the Word Table.

Thanks I will check the setting in Tools > Options.

 

[kjv1611]

Not possible as a lot of this work is done offsite and emaild to her,

This has me thinking - if there is so much work going on that several accountants are involved, and this one lady is gathering all their input at the end, it just sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

Why not have a website that allows the data to be input in a user form, and then that gets fed to a master database - MS SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, SQLite, etc. Then that data could be queried against, and a custom report template built off of the query to go into Word or whatever format is preferred?

Emailing around a bunch of tables pasted into Word just sounds very messy from a corporate perspective, and also I would think it less secure than a structured database. That may not be something you can overcome personally, but at some point, whoever is in charge of the whole deal has to have to sit back and look, and decide whether or not the current method is profitable to the company or not.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[SkipVought]

Here, here, kjv!

Whenever I hear of a copy 'n' paste process, I just KNOW that there must be a much better way.

Copy 'n' paste: OK for ad hoc. No OK for Dept Process.

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[fumei]

I will second (or is it third?) that.

Gerry

 

[macropod]

Hi StNixon,

You say:

the numbers will run outside the boundaries of their Word Table and run into another number

Sorry, but that's just not possible. In Word, if a number doesn't fit in a table cell, the number gets truncated or wrapped to the next line of the same cell. What you're describing is possible within an Excel worksheet, where a number inserted as text can extend into the next cell's space - but only if that cell is empty. Centring a number across a select range of columns is another possibility in Excel, but that seems unlikely to be the case here.

I think you need to look more closely at the document in question and work out whether:
. the 'table' is actually an embedded Excel worksheet; and/or
. the offending table cells have been merged, so the data can span two (or more) columns.
Note: the second possibility can apply to both a Word table and the cells of an embedded Excel sheet.

Another possibility is that it's just a formatting issue: one number might be right-aligned and the other left-aligned. That could give the appearance of a single number, but the alignment differences should be pretty obvious.


Cheers
[MS MVP - Word]

 

[SkipVought]

You have not provided enought information about how each of the PASTE operations is implemented, each in it's corresponding environment!

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}