Why can't I copy from some Word documents?

[angler2229]

I do yearbooks for schools who don't have the software or who simply have no staff member to do yearbooks. Subsequently, I get a hand drawn facsimile of what the school wants and several disks with copy done in Word. Most of the time I do the layout first and come back and set type. Usually I have no problems copying from Word and pasting to a text frame in PM. I then use the styles palette to set the type consistently throughout the publication. It is neat and quick that way.

Occasionally I get a disk of Word documents that refuse to paste into PM 7.0. I have to paste all the Word documents into Notepad, then copy and paste from there. That adds a step to my workflow. Here is the really odd thing; those Word files that won't copy always come from one particular school.

Any thoughts?

BTW, I am using a new plug-in for PageMaker called YB!Pro (Yearbook Pro) created by Taylor Publishing Company. With it I can create panels of picture placeholders, then using the index file on the CD-Rom of school photos, I can flow all the photos into the publication in just a few seconds. The program keeps track of all the links, and all I have to do is send the files to the service provider for printing. It is slick and has only some minor drawbacks.

Daniel

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, angler2229,

> I have to paste all the Word documents into Notepad, then copy and paste from there. That adds a step to my workflow.

Generally speaking that's my preferred route. IME few people ever fully use Word's style palette correctly and comprehensively, making formatting in Word so inconsistent that in my view it's generally quicker to ignore it.

I print the Word file first to get an idea of what it looks like.

> Occasionally I get a disk of Word documents that refuse to paste into PM 7.0

Not recommended. Use File -> Place.

It's possible that the Word files are Word2002 which PM doesn't recognise. You could try converting the Word files back *.RTF and placing that.

> > then using the index file on the CD-Rom of school photos

If you're importing files from a CD-ROM, don't.
See Section 5 at:
Recommended workflow for creating PageMaker publications

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/2f0d6.htm

Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[Eggles]

I agree with John about bringing in Word documents to PM. I use one of two methods - the one John has already described, and another which seems to work OK too.

I have a blank PM doc open along with my 'target' PM doc. I copy and paste from Word to the blank doc, and then highlight all the text (Control+A) then apply the 'No Style' from the Style palette. Then I recopy and paste into the 'target' PM doc.

When placing the next Word doc, I just delete what is still left in the blank PM doc and repaste the new one. You wouldn't believe how many 'Normal' styles show up in the Style palette. An indication of how the Normal style can vary so much from one Word user to another.

The main advantage of the second method is that you don't have to go the Links Manager to delete the link to the Word doc.

John - can you see anything wrong with doing it the way I've described?

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, Lyn,

> > can you see anything wrong with doing it the way I've described?

No - it's an acknowledgement that Word files are poorly formatted (becuase of lack of skill and motivation on the part of the creator and poor usability by Microsoft) and need to be cleaned up before being placed PM.

Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[angler2229]

John and Lyn,

Thanks for the heads up. I guess I should always copy and paste into Notepad from now on. One thing puzzles me. I never get a link from Word when I do File> Place. I have only one school that requires me to do that. The rub is, the yearbook advisor that does the rough layout thinks she has left enough room for all her text. Maybe 30% of the time she does. The rest of the time I have to reduce the font, line spacing, or leading to get the text fit (I must set text at Very Loose because of a requirement by Taylor Publishing).

She likes to use a pica ruler and physically measures the space for text on here rough payout. Then she forces the text in Word to fit the space by hitting Return at the end of the each line. Well, guess what I have discovered? The fitting of text in Word and PM are two different animals!

Thanks, again.

Daniel

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, Angler,

> > Then she forces the text in Word to fit the space by hitting Return at the end of the each line.

Typical typist!

Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[Eggles]

>>I guess I should always copy and paste into Notepad from now on. <<

Or you can just save the Word file in TXT format. No need to actually open Notepad.

Lyn

 

[Nohjekim]

I get word documents with copy for menus everyday and many of them have all kinds of things screwed up.

I now open every document in Word and remove all the extra tabs, spaces, indents etc before I do anything else.

I then divide the copy into different document by cutting and pasting into new docs according to page number.

I then save the pages as a text only document.

Now it is ready to place in PageMaker.

When I place the type in PageMaker the first thing I do is “select all” and change all of the type to the font that I plan to use for the body text.

I then set up styles for all the heads, item names, italics etc.

Once that is done the whole thing goes together in a flash.

Mike

 

[angler2229]

Mike,

Thanks for getting back. I have been having better luck with Word docs here lately by resaving them as a .txt doc first.

I guess my main question is areally technical one that maybe only a Microsoft programmer could answer - what are the schools doing to their docs that made them not want to paste into PM? It seemed to come from one particular school. Everone else's docs could be placed into PM with no problems.

Ah, the mysteries of the computer world!

Daniel