Paste Special into Word not extending text

[Luvsql]

I have been having this issue forever and cannot figure out how to resolve it. From a pdf document, I copy some text, then in word > paste special and choose unformatted text. It does paste it without and font formatting, but the text stays in the same margin format as the pdf and I have to manual use the back button to get the text to extend to the margins in the word document.

Is there a fix to this on Word 2002?

 

[Lilliabeth]

I have to manual use the back button"

Do you mean the backpace key?

Turn on show/hide to see what character you are having to backspace over (a pilcrow or a line break I imagine) at the end of each line, and then use Edit > Replace to remove them all.

--Lilliabeth

 

[Luvsql]

Yep. I have to go to the second line, back space to bring the text back up to the first line (adds about 2-3 more words on the first line as my margins are longer than the pdf), then repeat for the entire paragraph.

 

[SkipVought]

Lilliabeth just gave you a solution.

Skip,

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

 

[Luvsql]

It turns out it's a paragraph mark, so I have to replace, then skip, replace etc to mvoe the text, but then still try and maintain the original paragraphs.

Is there no way to remove ALL formatting when pasting ie a paragraph mark is a format non?

 

[Lilliabeth]

Skip? Do you mean type a space?

This has nothing to do with formatting.

Do this:

Edit > Replace

in the Find what box, type ^p
in the Replace With box, type a space

Click Replace all.


--Lilliabeth

 

[Lilliabeth]

Ok, I missed that you want to keep the original paragraphs. I'll bet with the help you have gotten, you can figure out how to do that.

--Lilliabeth

 

[xlhelp]

Lilliabeth just gave you a solution

luvsql

I believe what Skip is hinting at is rewarding Lilliabeth with a star

Canadian eh! Check out the new social forum Tek-Tips in Canada.
With the state of the world today, monkeys should get grossly insulted when humans claim to be their decendents

 

[Lilliabeth]

you have to look at your file and deduce what to do.
Do you have empty paragraphs seperating what should be paragaphs? If so

Find what ^p^p
Replace with zzz
Replace All

Find what ^p
Replace with a space
Replace all

Find what zzz
Replace with ^p
Replace all

--Lilliabeth

 

[SkipVought]

BTW, Paragraph marks are not FORMATTING. They are actual characters, like spaces or punctuation or alphanumeric characteters.

Skip,

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

 

[MakeItSo]

If you really always want to paste in "normal" style, i.e. remove all formatting before pasting, then you could go with a little macro, which you can assign to a key combination (e.g. CTRL+Shift+V):

Sub PasteClean()

    Selection.ClearFormatting
    Selection.PasteAndFormat wdFormatPlainText

End Sub

;-)

[navy]"We had to turn off that service to comply with the CDA Bill."[/navy]
- The Bastard Operator From Hell

 

[fumei]

MakeItSo. True, but the essential point is the one Skip explicitly pointed to: paragraph marks are not (in themselves) formatting.

Even if the content is pasted as plaintext, if there is a paragraph mark, there will STILL be a paragraph mark. A paragraph mark contains formatting, but that formatting is the characteristics of whatever Style is applied.

Changing a paragraph mark (formatted as 16 pts Arial Bold) to whatever is "normal" (or plaintext, or even another Style) - say 12 pts Arial - will still have the paragraph mark.

It does indeed sound like "empty" paragraph marks. This is common when bringing in content into Word. The Find/Replace "zzz" and ^p^p method works in most cases. Not always, but most of the time.

Gerry

 

[MakeItSo]

@Gerry,

never mind. I got the joke only now. She wasn't referring to styles but to formatting as in the line breaks copying over from PDF.


Welcome to the world of PDF2Word. Where post-editing never ends...

[navy]"We had to turn off that service to comply with the CDA Bill."[/navy]
- The Bastard Operator From Hell

 

[SkipVought]

MakeItSo,

Could you help get my broker serger to work? ;-)

Skip,

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

 

[tf1]

You can remove all formatting by selecting the text and executing Ctrl+Q and Ctrl+Spacebar. But you'll still need to replace all the end of line breaks using Find and Replace.


Regards: Terry

 

[fumei]

Do you mean Ctrl-A and then Ctrl-Spacebar?

What does Ctrl-Q do?

But even so, the same thing applies. This is not a formatting issue perse. It is a paragraph mark issue. Changing format makes zero difference to the existence of the paragraph mark itself. But as you mention using Find and Replace can fix that, in most cases.

Gerry

 

[tf1]

I agree: its a paragraph mark problem.

Ctrl+Q = ResetPara
Ctrl+Space = ResetChar

That combination effectively removes the majority of bungled formatting!


Regards: Terry

 

[fumei]

Here I am a long term user of Word, and I* am still learning. I have never used Ctrl-Q. Mind you, I use proper Styles for everything, so I can not really see me using a Reset Paragraphs...but hey, ya never know.

Gerry

 

[tf1]

I used it to help clean out documents foisted on me to prepare for use outside the company.



Regards: Terry

 

[fumei]

I usually do a Ctrl-A and a ClearFormatting.

Gerry