Need help keeping formatting when pasting into other document

  • Thread starter Thread starter elzar
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elzar

I am using Word2000. Although I am an IT person with many year
computer experience, when it comes to fancy word processing - forge
it. I haven't a clue, although I can usually figure things out enoug
to do what I need to get done, and never have to do anything that fanc
anyway. But now I am totally stumped.

I have a big document which someone else sent me a fancy schmancy cove
page to add to it, with a vertical line down one side, a company image
writing in different styles (or something), an embedded image
different fonts all over the place etc.

When I paste the cover page into a new blank page in my document i
loses all of its formatting.

I've even tried the PASTE SPECIAL options but they don't work either
and have different problems. For instance the closest I can get t
keeping the formatting is to use the "Microsoft Word Document Object
choice from "paste special" but that cuts off one of the pictures i
the document - plus it mysteriously results in the entire cover pag
being effing INVISIBLE in normal view, and even worse, when I conver
the document to a PDF (which I need to do) that cover page looks reall
really wierd.


What is the magic secret to pasting in part of one document int
another and keeping the original formatting, or is it just not eve
possible??????????

I even tried pasting my document into the fancy one, but even thoug
mine has no real fancy stuff, it is very different from the cover page
and then all 50 of my pages look nuts as they take on whateve
characteristics the cover page has.

Any help appreciated
 
At the beginning of your document, insert a Section Break, Next Odd Page.
Then above that new break (so you need to have the ShowAll option on to see
the non-printer characters), use Insert, File and choose the 'fancy front
page'.
 
..snip...
I have a big document which someone else sent me a fancy schmancy cover
page to add to it, with a vertical line down one side, a company image,
writing in different styles (or something), an embedded image,
different fonts all over the place etc.

When I paste the cover page into a new blank page in my document it
loses all of its formatting.

I've even tried the PASTE SPECIAL options but they don't work either,
and have different problems.   For instance the closest I can get to
keeping the formatting is to use the "Microsoft Word Document Object"
choice from "paste special" but that cuts off one of the pictures in
the document - plus it mysteriously results in the entire cover page
being effing INVISIBLE in normal view, and even worse, when I convert
the document to a PDF (which I need to do) that cover page looks really
really wierd.

What is the magic secret to pasting in part of one document into
another and keeping the original formatting, or is it just not even
possible??????????
Click to expand...
...snip...


This confounded me for the longest time too! I took a Cover Page and
added more. THAT did not work well at all! To understand Microsoft's
logic: Think backwards. That is back to front. Even the manuals often
list the most important information at the end.

Anyway, to add a Cover page, start at the end and tack pages onto the
front.:

Terry's got it right, too.

Take the ENDING section first.
Insert before the first page a page break/section break
Now you probably have a blank page at the start, but you're not done
yet. Go to the second section and highlight heading/footing
1 make the heading independent
2 make the footing independent
Now, you're free to paste in the Cover Page onto that blank page
without affecting the rest of your document.

However, I found I had to write down all the settings for my 'cover'
page and manually put them back in, just for that first section.
But, there may be a way to transfer everything, including that
vertical line.

At least doing it as above, you'll get the page numbering starting at
1 on the second page, and the total pages will only count that last
section. Hope that works for you, too.

Robert
 
What you both are missing is that where you need to add the section break
(next page) is at the end of the cover page, before inserting it at the
front of the document. This will preserve the document/section-level
settings in that file.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org



..snip...
I have a big document which someone else sent me a fancy schmancy cover
page to add to it, with a vertical line down one side, a company image,
writing in different styles (or something), an embedded image,
different fonts all over the place etc.

When I paste the cover page into a new blank page in my document it
loses all of its formatting.

I've even tried the PASTE SPECIAL options but they don't work either,
and have different problems. For instance the closest I can get to
keeping the formatting is to use the "Microsoft Word Document Object"
choice from "paste special" but that cuts off one of the pictures in
the document - plus it mysteriously results in the entire cover page
being effing INVISIBLE in normal view, and even worse, when I convert
the document to a PDF (which I need to do) that cover page looks really
really wierd.

What is the magic secret to pasting in part of one document into
another and keeping the original formatting, or is it just not even
possible??????????
Click to expand...
...snip...


This confounded me for the longest time too! I took a Cover Page and
added more. THAT did not work well at all! To understand Microsoft's
logic: Think backwards. That is back to front. Even the manuals often
list the most important information at the end.

Anyway, to add a Cover page, start at the end and tack pages onto the
front.:

Terry's got it right, too.

Take the ENDING section first.
Insert before the first page a page break/section break
Now you probably have a blank page at the start, but you're not done
yet. Go to the second section and highlight heading/footing
1 make the heading independent
2 make the footing independent
Now, you're free to paste in the Cover Page onto that blank page
without affecting the rest of your document.

However, I found I had to write down all the settings for my 'cover'
page and manually put them back in, just for that first section.
But, there may be a way to transfer everything, including that
vertical line.

At least doing it as above, you'll get the page numbering starting at
1 on the second page, and the total pages will only count that last
section. Hope that works for you, too.

Robert
 
What you both are missing is that where you need to add the section break
(next page) is at the end of the cover page, before inserting it at the
front of the document. This will preserve the document/section-level
settings in that file.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USAhttp://word.mvps.org
Click to expand...

YES!! you said it exactly.

I have added section breaks at the END of my cover, then added more.
That has always caused all the information in the second section to
get confounded.

Instead of ADDING to a Cover Page, go to the exact first character in
the second section, and place a Section Break there, then do all I
said, and insert the Cover page into that blank first page and all
works well.

Uh, what did I miss?

Robert
 
Suzanne,

I reread your post.

Did you mean
take the Cover, add a section break at the end.
take the Second Section, add a section break at the start, and make
all header/footers independent.
THEN combine the two? Remove any 'extras'.

That might preserve everything.

I'll try it next time.

Robert
 
Terry said:
At the beginning of your document, insert a Section Break, Next Od
Page.
Then above that new break (so you need to have the ShowAll option on t
see
the non-printer characters), use Insert, File and choose the 'fanc
front
page'.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for your reply Terry.

I tried that but it doesn't work. All of the formatting is still lost
 
No, you add a section break (next page) at the end of the file that contains
the cover page. For good measure (though I'm not sure it will help), unlink
the header and footer in the new Section 2 from those in Section 1. Then use
Insert | File (or the Word 2007 equivalent, Insert | Text | Object | Text
from File) to insert the cover page file at the top of the document that
contains the rest of the text. The section break will be included with the
inserted text and will preserve the formatting in that section. It may still
be necessary to unlink the header and footer in Section 2 of the compound
document from Section 1 and restore its formatting, but I don't think so.

For more, see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/WorkWithSections.htm
(which contradicts some of what I just said, so it's probably right).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org


Suzanne,

I reread your post.

Did you mean
take the Cover, add a section break at the end.
take the Second Section, add a section break at the start, and make
all header/footers independent.
THEN combine the two? Remove any 'extras'.

That might preserve everything.

I'll try it next time.

Robert
 
Thanks so much for your reply Terry.

I tried that but it doesn't work.  All of the formatting is still lost.
Click to expand...

elzar,

I just tried what Suzanne suggested, adding the second section AFTER
the cover:
1. insert page break new section
2. make header and footing independent, remove them entirely
3. insert file [the formatted second section]

It almost worked, I got the right font, the right size, the right
header/footer, but...
I got left with the old margins.

If I had set them to the second section's margins, I would have been
done and got what I wanted.

Robert
page
 
Well, the idea of the section break is to preserve the settings in the
document, which includes the margins. I assumed you wanted to insert the
cover page exactly as it existed in the second document.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

Thanks so much for your reply Terry.

I tried that but it doesn't work. All of the formatting is still lost.
Click to expand...

elzar,

I just tried what Suzanne suggested, adding the second section AFTER
the cover:
1. insert page break new section
2. make header and footing independent, remove them entirely
3. insert file [the formatted second section]

It almost worked, I got the right font, the right size, the right
header/footer, but...
I got left with the old margins.

If I had set them to the second section's margins, I would have been
done and got what I wanted.

Robert
page
 
Well, the idea of the section break is to preserve the settings in the
document, which includes the margins. I assumed you wanted to insert the
cover page exactly as it existed in the second document.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USAhttp://word.mvps.org


Terry Farrell;437570 Wrote:
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for your reply Terry.
Click to expand...
I tried that but it doesn't work. All of the formatting is still lost.
Click to expand...

elzar,

I just tried what Suzanne suggested, adding the second section AFTER
the cover:
1. insert page break new section
2. make header and footing independent, remove them entirely
3. insert file [the formatted second section]

It almost worked, I got the right font, the right size, the right
header/footer, but...
I got left with the old margins.

If I had set them to the second section's margins, I would have been
done and got what I wanted.

Robert
page
Click to expand...

The Cover Page Exists.

I added to that document a SecondSection with all its margins, fonts,
font sizes, headers/footers

I wish to preserve the Cover Page *and* the SecondSection's
characteristics.

NEVER do I wish to obliterate one for the other. To me, this is a
major flaw in Word.

Robert
 
This is exactly what a section break allows you to do, in the case of
document/section-level settings, which include page size and orientation,
margins, number of columns, header, footer, and so on. But you cannot have
different definitions for the same styles in a single document, so if you
paste text in a given style into a document in which that style is
differently defined, you are going to see a difference; see
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/FormatOfTextChanges.html

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

Well, the idea of the section break is to preserve the settings in the
document, which includes the margins. I assumed you wanted to insert the
cover page exactly as it existed in the second document.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USAhttp://word.mvps.org


Terry Farrell;437570 Wrote:
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for your reply Terry.
Click to expand...
I tried that but it doesn't work. All of the formatting is still lost.
Click to expand...

elzar,

I just tried what Suzanne suggested, adding the second section AFTER
the cover:
1. insert page break new section
2. make header and footing independent, remove them entirely
3. insert file [the formatted second section]

It almost worked, I got the right font, the right size, the right
header/footer, but...
I got left with the old margins.

If I had set them to the second section's margins, I would have been
done and got what I wanted.

Robert
page
Click to expand...

The Cover Page Exists.

I added to that document a SecondSection with all its margins, fonts,
font sizes, headers/footers

I wish to preserve the Cover Page *and* the SecondSection's
characteristics.

NEVER do I wish to obliterate one for the other. To me, this is a
major flaw in Word.

Robert
 
Wow, I didn't realize there was continued discussion on this. I mus
have the option off for the forum to email me if anyone replies.
will have to try some of the newer things mentioned in this thread
see if they work any better than where I am now (see below). Thank
for the continued help.

I came back here now to say that I was able to finally get this to wor
for me! Although what I am doing I don't exactly understand, jus
that it works.

First I overcame the problem where I was getting an image cut off o
one side - to fix that I adjusted the page margins on the cover doc t
match my full document.

That still left me with only one method that keeps the formatting
using PASTE SPECIAL then selecting Microsoft Word Object to make th
cover page some kind of big image instead of word doc format.

But the killer gotcha I could not get around was that if I converte
the document to PDF the fonts in the cover page get futzed up.

Finally I decided to take a look at what the font is that is being use
and to change it to something else that looks similar to see if
different font might convert better.

I discovered that the font that was getting screwed up was calle
"Times". This made me curious since I've never seen this fontname o
my PC before - what I am more used to seeing is the TT (truetype) fon
called TimesNewRoman.

I don't understand what "Times" is exactly but it is NOT in th
pulldown choice of installed fonts on my PC in Word. I think thi
means that it is a font not installed on my PC - but must be on the P
that made the cover page??? But somehow Word on my PC knows enoug
about it to handle it but the PDF converter process doesn't!!

When I convert it to PDF (using OpenOffice) that does not know what t
do with this font. By simply changing the font in the original cove
document to TimesNewRomain, THEN doing a PasteSpecial of the cover pag
into my document as word-doc-object, THEN converting the new document
it works and looks ok. Plus the TT TimesnewRomain on my PC look
identical to this unknown "Times" font.

Again, I don't exactly understand what "Times" is, where it came from
how it works in Word on my PC but won't convert right, but at least
found a workaround, also this is a really good learning experienc
which I will not soon forget. From now if I run into this again
will be carefully checking the fonts used in any docs given to me
 
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