Copying Drawings

[Rick Hammett]

I used Word 2003 to create a simple drawing in a document using rectangles,
lines, and text blocks. When I copy the drawing from the original document
to a new document, the drawing's format is lost and the drawing is illegible
in the new document. I tried grouping the drawing's objects and then
copying, but this had no effect (formatting still lost with copy). Turning
off the drawing canvas had no effect either.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?UmljayBIYW1tZXR0?=,

I used Word 2003 to create a simple drawing in a document using rectangles,
lines, and text blocks. When I copy the drawing from the original document
to a new document, the drawing's format is lost and the drawing is illegible
in the new document. I tried grouping the drawing's objects and then
copying, but this had no effect (formatting still lost with copy). Turning
off the drawing canvas had no effect either.

How about selecting and copying/pasting the Drawing Canvas (which should
include the content)?

If that doesn't help, could you be more specific about what formatting is being
lost? "Illegible" means something can't be read, and that doesn't really apply
to drawings, just text...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Rick Hammett]

Copying the canvas had the same results. The text blocks were illegible, the
rectangle and lines were not affected.

I think I figured out what happened. The original drawing was in a document
that used single spaced formatting for the non-drawing text. The document
pasted into, however, used double spaced APA format. Apparently the text
blocks attempt to mimic the general page formatting of the new document. I
fixed the text blocks in the new document by using the format paragraph
option to change each one's spacing back to single (it had changed to "at
least 24 pt" during the paste).

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?UmljayBIYW1tZXR0?=,

Ah, yes, certainly. By default, text boxes use the Normal style (default
formatting). And yes, anything you paste into a document will pick up the styles
from that document.

One way to avoid that (if you know you'll be doing something of this nature) is
to define a specific style, with a unique name, for something that should retain
its formatting when you paste or insert into a different document.

Copying the canvas had the same results. The text blocks were illegible, the
rectangle and lines were not affected.

I think I figured out what happened. The original drawing was in a document
that used single spaced formatting for the non-drawing text. The document
pasted into, however, used double spaced APA format. Apparently the text
blocks attempt to mimic the general page formatting of the new document. I
fixed the text blocks in the new document by using the format paragraph
option to change each one's spacing back to single (it had changed to "at
least 24 pt" during the paste).

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail