Horrific "Feature" cost me dearly - Please Help!

[stebro]

Please support me by voting for MS to fix this feature!! I'm the new poster
child for the next Southwest Airlines "wanna get away?" ad after this...

Today I sent an email that I wish I'd never sent - all because of an
undocumented "feature" in MS Office. I maintain a spreadsheet of personal
items with many tabs which happens to include a personalized calendar in one
of the tabs. I wanted to cut and paste the calendar into the email as a
visual of what I was trying to explain. In Excel I selected about 40 cells
and "copied" it to the clipboard, then went to Outlook and selected "Paste
Special" and selected Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet Object. Wha-la! My 40
cells appeared in the email just as I intended - looked great - so I sent it.

One of my co-workers came to me after he noticed the huge size of the email
and showed me that what I had just done was sent all of my personal
information - with the entire workbook (every blessed tab) to our entire
business unit.


O.K. Microsoft - what the *#%% is this all about? Since when did "paste 40
cells" mean paste the entire workbook ???????


Oh, if only the purpose of my existence is to serve as a warning to others
that they would heed..... Sign me - depressed & embarrased...
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[Keme]

If you are trying to insult Carey then you should know that MVPs are not
Microsoft employees. This is volunteer work.

Nope! Didn't try to insult Carey Frisch, but he seemingly tried to
insult the OP. I just shared my first thought upon reading CF's reply.
That thought said nothing about my opinion of CF. If any individual is
offended by my post, I apologize (unless the offense is justified, of
course).

If the big MS is insulted, though, I guess I'll feel its power soon...

 

[Harlan Grove]

O.K. Microsoft - what the *#%% is this all about? Since when did "paste 40
cells" mean paste the entire workbook ???????

....

If you only want to paste an image of the cells, paste as a picture. Pasting
as an Excel object (or pasting any portion of any document created by any
OLE-server-capable application as that type of document) always pastes the
entire file. Pasting as a picture (or metafile) is always safest.

No, this isn't well documented, but neither Windows nor Office have come
with decent documentation since the early 1990s.

 

[Harlan Grove]

Boy do I regret that this thread has lost it's focus from the topic to the
responders. My sincere apologies for the misunderstandings, but does
anyone
have any thoughts on how to persuade MS to change this "Feature"???

To my way of thinking (please restrain yourselves here...) this is a major
"flaw" and I can't believe others aren't being hurt by this!

....

Read your EULA. Using Microsoft software could cost you your job, your
marriage, possibly your health, but you'd have no legal recourse against
Microsoft. What incentive do they have to fix anything other than taking
your business elsewhere if you can? However, being an effective monopoly
means never having to say sorry.

 

[JoAnn Paules [MSFT MVP]]

It's easy to respond to an insult with an insult but it really doesn't do
any good. All it does is put a bit more negativity in the world. I see a lot
of posts that would have been best if never sent. Sometimes I have to step
away from my keyboard because I'm itching to blast someone. I've been known
to respond in a less than kind manner but I'm doing much better lately. I
just don't respond.

 

[Keme]

It's easy to respond to an insult with an insult but it really doesn't do
any good. All it does is put a bit more negativity in the world. I see a lot
of posts that would have been best if never sent. Sometimes I have to step
away from my keyboard because I'm itching to blast someone. I've been known
to respond in a less than kind manner but I'm doing much better lately. I
just don't respond.

Floating off topic here, but as it considers proper conduct in the group
I guess it's acceptable:

I see your point, an I don't really think we differ much (I believe I've
seen some of the "less than kind" responses you refer to, and I've felt
he itch too, sometimes). What puzzles me is:

The original post is admittedly rather aggressive, somewhat of a request
for help, but more of a complaint, really. Still, a real issue! I didn't
see you provide anything helpful.

CF responds with one sentence, clearly offensive and in no way helpful.
(We're at a helpdesk here, remember?) I didn't see you comment on that
either.

stebro's response was clear and he had his facts correct, and what I did
was:
1 - Using CF's offense to turn the blame away from stebro and towards
the software developer(s) through a joke.
2 - Supporting stebro's view that this is a real issue.
3 - Stating that I'm not an MVP
4 - Smiley stated that I'm lefthanded and wearing sunglasses

*The intended effects of (1) were:*
- to smooth the edges of CF's response
- to provide moral support, if nothing else, to stebro
- to lighten up the mood a little
Of course, (1) can be taken as an offense by CF. I didn't see any
response from him indicating that, and if I see one he'll get my
immediate apology.

*The intended effects on (2) were:*
- moral support, like in (1)
- a signal to MS that more than one user agrees that this is an issue.
(Most options are expected to be self documenting, so calling the paste
option "Workbook object" instead of "Worksheet object" would help a lot.
Really!)
Can't see any ill side effects coming from this one.

*The intended effects of (3) were:*
- to make it clear that I has not reached the level of esteem CF has
with MS.
- to indicate that I probably won't get that esteem either, which really
doesn't bother me.
This can oviously be taken offensively, too, by any MVP. To put things
straight: I never intended to say anything bad about being MS "Most
Valued Professional", nor about those who are.

*The intended effect of (4) was*
- to lighten up the mood.
"Sunglasses" was an error. I thought "8" was for ordinary glasses. I'm a
southpaw, though. Sorry if the sunglasses made me seem condescending or
something... (-::

These points is what you choose to comment on, politely and mildly
insisting that I tried to insult a previous poster. That, to conclude
according to my intro, is what puzzles me.

I believed my intentions to be obvious, but I see that I may have
offended someone. I'll try to refrain from making any jocular comments
in the future. Can't promise, though...

 

[stebro]

Obviously there are reasons why there are so many different options when you
choose "paste special". Some options create very large output, which is a
consideration when emailing. Some preserve and some destroy the original
formatting, etc. This experience has really opened my eyes about knowing
the differences before choosing and assuming I can intuitively pick the right
choice.

sb

 

[Echo S]

Personally, I think it should be easier to intuitively pick the right
option. People simply don't realize that pasting some Excel cells often does
paste the entire workbook. I know Microsoft is aware of this issue.

You know, Microsoft also has this whole "security" push -- along with that
comes tools you can download to strip personal data from various documents
and files. I would imagine, given this direction, future versions of Office
won't paste entire files into other files without letting you know.

Now, how soon in the future that happens, I don't know.

 

[Harlan Grove]

Personally, I think it should be easier to intuitively pick the right
option. People simply don't realize that pasting some Excel cells often
does
paste the entire workbook. I know Microsoft is aware of this issue.

You know, Microsoft also has this whole "security" push -- along with that
comes tools you can download to strip personal data from various documents
and files. I would imagine, given this direction, future versions of Office
won't paste entire files into other files without letting you know.

Now, how soon in the future that happens, I don't know.

....

Wouldn't that have to be at the OS level? I don't have a lot of non-MSFT OLE
apps to test with, but when I copy a few cells in Lotus 123 R9.7 and paste
special into WordPad, the default is pasting as a Lotus 123 workbook, i.e.,
as the entire file. This leads me to believe that Windows defaults to
embedding entire documents.

If so, it *WOULD* be useful for Windows to provide an option for users to
set the default paste type (e.g., as Picture/Metafile).

Then again, it's also be useful for Microsoft to update Excel's OLE label,
changing 'worksheet', which was the file type back in Excel 4 when OLE was
brand new functionality, to 'workbook'. But Microsoft has a tendency to
ignore things like this.

 

[Echo S]

...

Wouldn't that have to be at the OS level? I don't have a lot of non-MSFT OLE
apps to test with, but when I copy a few cells in Lotus 123 R9.7 and paste
special into WordPad, the default is pasting as a Lotus 123 workbook, i.e.,
as the entire file. This leads me to believe that Windows defaults to
embedding entire documents.

You know, I hadn't thought of that, and I don't know if it is an OS thing or
not. It could be that this is the reason the behavior hasn't been changed in
Office.

If so, it *WOULD* be useful for Windows to provide an option for users to
set the default paste type (e.g., as Picture/Metafile).

I sooooo would like this -- regardless of the reason!

Then again, it's also be useful for Microsoft to update Excel's OLE label,
changing 'worksheet', which was the file type back in Excel 4 when OLE was
brand new functionality, to 'workbook'. But Microsoft has a tendency to
ignore things like this.

I agree. But does it say "worksheet object" in Paste Special? I thought it
said "workbook object."

I don't think either is especially helpful to people who think they're just
pasting a few cells, though.

 

[Harlan Grove]

I agree. But does it say "worksheet object" in Paste Special? I thought it
said "workbook object."

With Office XP installed, it says 'Microsoft Excel Worksheet'.

I don't think either is especially helpful to people who think they're just
pasting a few cells, though.

Maybe, but using 'worksheet' implies only the worksheet containing the
copied cells would be pasted rather than the entire workbook. Accuracy in
terminology is a good thing but seemingly not a priority with Microsoft.