Copying formatted text without page layout

F

Francis Turton

I am trying to copy a large amount of formatted text from one document
into another. The document into which I am pasting the text has its own
template with its own page layouts. Despite this, when I paste in the
text from the source document, the page layouts of the source document
are copied as well. I can find no way of applying the page layouts of
the target document after the text has been pasted in.

I'm really at my wits' end with this. The annoying thing is that I know
I've pasted text into documents in the past without any problem.

Every day I spend using Word, the more in awe I am of how so many
person-hours could have been devoted to producing something so utterly,
/utterly/ useless :<<<<<<<<<
 
C

Charles Kenyon

The page layouts are in section marks (including the last paragraph mark in
the document). See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/PasteWithoutSectionInfo.htm.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

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


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from my ignorance and your wisdom.
 
F

Francis Turton

Anne said:
Francis: If Word is useless, why do 90% of word processor users use it?
(Food for thought.)
Click to expand...

Because (a) FrameMaker is too expensive and (b) Word comes as standard
on most business PCs!

I'm a technical writer and following my company's recent takeover, have
been obliged to start using Word again after 4 trouble-free years of
using FrameMaker.

I didn't mean to offend anyone, but I'm just fed up of Word's total
unpredictability - i.e. the way that something that worked yesterday,
doesn't work today - and the inordinate number of bugs it contains
(I've given up on multi-level numbered lists, just to take one
example). I work with long, complex documents and Word just isn't up to
the task of producing them. I waste *days at a time* trying to get it
to do what I want.

I've also made the mistake of writing Visual Basic macros for automatic
conversion of one format to another. You wouldn't believe the number of
workarounds I've had to write in order to get it to do approximately
what I want, because of the minefield of bugs (which Microsoft,
needless to say, calls "features")!

Sorry to be negative but I am just extremely frustrated.
Try this:
http://www.officearticles.com/word/paste_from_an_external_source_in_microsoft_word.htm
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com
Click to expand...

Thanks - problem is I want to *retain* the paragraph and character
formatting of the source document, but not the page layouts. The stupid
thing is that in *one* document I have, the page layouts get copied
over, and in another document, they don't! That's what I mean about
Word's infuriating unpredictability.

Anyway, thanks for the response!

Francis
 
A

Anne Troy

No offense taken. I didn't write the software, just a book about it, LOL.

Okay... stop copying the section breaks.
Paragraph returns store paragraph formatting.
Section breaks store page formatting.
Make sure you're viewing your section breaks by turning the show/hide button
on. Then copy everything between the section breaks over. If it won't mess
you up, you could copy all to a blank doc, Find (more, special buttons)
section breaks and Replace with a page break. Then copy and paste that.
Also... you may STILL need to insert a section break at the end of your doc
(if that's where you're pasting) and tell the header and footer NOT to be
same as previous.
At least with all this, the pain should be aspirin-worthy instead of
valium-worthy.
Good luck!
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com
 
F

Francis Turton

Charles said:
The page layouts are in section marks (including the last paragraph mark in
the document). See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/PasteWithoutSectionInfo.htm.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide
Click to expand...

Wow - thank you so much! It's the section breaks that are the problem.
The chances of me working that out by myself were zero.
 
C

Charles Kenyon

On multilevel (outline) numbering see: How to create numbered headings or
outline numbering in your Word document
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html. (For
bullets see http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/bullets/controlbullets.html, the
subject is related.)

This is based on ...

Word's Numbering Explained
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm

Additional information you may find useful or need is at:

How to Create a Template, Part II
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm


--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

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


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
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.
 
C

Charles Kenyon

Spend time learning styles. It will cure most problems you have with
formatting anomolies. http://addbalance.com/styles.htm
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

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


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
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.
 
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