Can I create a shortcut key to transpose copied text

[lskett]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC

I have a large volume of OCR'd text in a column that needs to be copied by block and pasted special to transpose the text to horizontal row. Is there a way to create a shortcut key? I can create a Paste Special shortcut key, but can't figure out how to add the 'transpose' function to it. Any assistance is appreciated.

 

[lskett]

Additionally:
The text is a print-out of a contact list from an recovered drive and is in name/address/email/phone/etc. formatted in one single column. I need to copy text blocks by individual names to create a .csv file format ot be able to use it to upload to Outlook or Entourage.

 

[CyberTaz]

Quite frankly, you'd be better off to handle this in Word. Do a Find &
Replace to insert commas or [preferably] Tabs in place of the line breaks
(except for the ones at the end of each record) & remove any "empty"
paragraphs that may be separating the records from one another. Save it as a
text file then open it in Excel & save in a workbook format.

Even if you can "assign a keystroke" in Excel to do the transposition you'd
also have to find a way to have it *repeated* for each record in the file
which would necessitate an AppleScript since VBA isn't usable in 2008...
Otherwise you'd have to manually apply the transposition to each record.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[adamjacobbryant]

While he would be better off for this example, I think what a lot of people are looking for is how to transpose more easily. I have an icon on my tool bar for paste special, and have made a short cut to paste special-but what would be better would be a paste special/transpose key or tab...this is something I do all of the time, an the two steps in very time consuming.

So is there a useful short cut?

 

[CyberTaz]

What you're really asking for is automation of a specialized repetitive
operation which is significant to you but most likely isn't common enough to
justify a "dedicated" feature. That's why the program is customizable

If you have a version other than 2008 you can create a macro to handle the
task & add it to a toolbar as a button and/or assign a kybd shortcut to it.
In Excel 2008 you don't have VBA support - that will return in the next
release - but you may be able to create an Apple Script.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

What you're really asking for is automation of a specialized repetitive
operation which is significant to you but most likely isn't common enough to
justify a "dedicated" feature. That's why the program is customizable

If you have a version other than 2008 you can create a macro to handle the
task & add it to a toolbar as a button and/or assign a kybd shortcut to it.
In Excel 2008 you don't have VBA support - that will return in the next
release - but you may be able to create an Apple Script.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Or, you CAN do this very easily in Excel 2008. In the current, or new
workbook, press ctrl-F11 to add an XLM macro sheet. In A1 and A2 enter:
=paste.special(,,,true)
=return()

Select A1. Go to Insert-name-Define. Enter a convenient name like "TRANSP",
and select a key combination.

Save the workbook. If you used a new workbook, you could put it somewhere
where Excel will open it each time it starts.

Now, simply copy the data you want to transpose, select the first cell of
the new location, and press the option-command key combination you entered
above. Alternately you can use the forms toolbar to create a button assigned
to this macro.