Copying data without formatting

  • Thread starter Thread starter W. Guy Delaney
  • Start date Start date
W

W. Guy Delaney

When I copy data from another Microsort Word document or from some other
source, the copied text brings with it the formatting in the copied
document. Is there a way to copy such text and leave its original formatting
behind?
 
Edit, Paste Special, Unformatted Text.

If you do this frequently and don't want to bother going through the
menus and dialog boxes every time, install this macro and assign a
convenient keystroke:

Sub PasteUnformatted()
Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteText,
Placement:= _
wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False
End Sub


Larry
 
Guy, make sure you can view all the formatting marks (click on the
backwards paragraph icon on the toolbar). When you select the text to
copy, make sure you don't include the last or final paragraph mark at
the end - that's what carries the formatting information.
 
when you go to paste it in, go to Edit>PasteSpecial and a drop menu will
give the option to paste unformatted text, plus other options
 
That last paragraph mark carries the document formatting. Each paragraph
mark carries paragraph formatting. Edit => Paste Special... => Unformatted
text is the way to do it.
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory:
<URL: http://addbalance.com/word/index.htm>

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide)
<URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/index.htm>

See also the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.
 
Thanks JG. That's good to know. Easy too.

I do have another question. When you have copied a document form another
source and are ready to paste it into a blank Microsoft Word document, I
have been told to use the ENTER key to insert several blank lines before I
paste. What exactly does this to the formatting? Does it leave the old
formatting behind and cause the newly pasted material to take on the default
formatting of the blank page?

Or am I making entirely to much out of all this?

Guy
 
I must be doing something wrong.

When I open an e-mail in outlook express, then select all, and then paste
the document into a blank Word document, the resulting text is formatted
exactly as it was in the e-mail. I have tried all the options of Paste
Special, and the lines of the inserted text do not take on the margins of
the destination document. I have to manually delete the paragraph marks in
order to format the document the way I want to.

Each line of the e-mail after it is pasted in the destination document has a
paragraph symbol at the end of each line. I assumed if you used the Paste
Special and chose Text that these paragraph marks would disappear and that
the line would word-wrap naturally in the destination document.

How do you explain this and what should I do to copy text to a new location
and leave all formatting behind, including the returns (paragraph marks) at
the end of each line?
 
Hi Guy

I think we've been talking about two different things here.

Word doesn't regard a paragraph mark as "formatting". Word thinks a
paragraph mark is just another character, like an A or an 8. So when you
copy from OE to Word, you're pasting letters and numbers and paragraph
marks. While Word *interprets* the paragraph mark in a particular way,
it's just another character.

Word thinks "formatting" is things like bold or Times New Roman or blue
or 12pt. Edit > Paste Special > Unformatted Text will paste the bare
text (including the paragraph marks!), but omit formatting like blue,
bold 12 pt.

So you're not doing anything wrong. You're experiencing the paste
process as it should be. There are very easy ways to clean up text from
emails and web pages with extraneous paragraph marks. See
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm for details.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
Melbourne, Australia
 
You might be able to use a free program called eCleaner, (do a search on
Google) as it will do what you are looking for. Takes out line breaks,
those hideous >>>, does many things for you. Give it a try. I think you
like it.
I use it for doing newsletters, when I get emails from many different
people, all using different wp's, and emails. Works for me.
 
The reason for pressing Enter a couple of times is to leave the *document*
formatting behind when using Insert | File to insert a file into a new blank
document. If you just Insert | File with no content in the target document,
Word will--against all logic--copy the last paragraph mark of the source
document so that you end up with just exactly what you started with (and are
probably trying to ditch, especially if it's corrupt).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Back
Top