Pasting a list from excel in to a textbox manually

[Hari Prasadh]

Hi,

I copy a list from excel then go to powerpoint and Insert - textBox and do
double-click (bad habit of double- clicking) and do Ctrl + V.

Surprisingly, The list gets pasted somewhere else (in a textbox which PPT
itself creates) on the same slide. Why does it happen?

I have tried with single-clicking a textbox and then pasting but nothing
gets pasted.

Thanks a lot,
Hari
India

 

[Echo S]

Hi,

I copy a list from excel then go to powerpoint and Insert - textBox
and do double-click (bad habit of double- clicking) and do Ctrl + V.

Surprisingly, The list gets pasted somewhere else (in a textbox which
PPT itself creates) on the same slide. Why does it happen?

I have tried with single-clicking a textbox and then pasting but
nothing gets pasted.

It's because the default paste behavior for copied Excel data is actually a
PPT table. You have to use the Paste Options icon to change the pasted text
into "keep text only," at which point, PPT will create the textbox with the
Excel data as text.

If you select the original object that was pasted, you should see the Tables
and Borders toolbar pop up. You can use it to add borders to the cells,
which will help you see that the original object really is a table, not a
textbox.

It shouldn't matter if you single-click or double-click, though--the data
should still be pasted in the center of the slide.

 

[Brian Reilly, MS MVP]

Hari,
Echo is smarter than me in most of these cases, and I might also
suggest that you can choose PasteSpecial and choose the Excel object
choice and you will have a list like you expect.

PPT 2003 changed the default for pasting XL objects as PPT tables
(yuch!!) and you have to work through the PasteSpecial options to make
it behave (vbg).

Brian Reilly, PowerPoint MVP

 

[Echo S]

Oh, yeah. Thanks for the pickup, Bri-guy!

Yup, Paste Special will also work -- it gives you an option to paste as
Excel Object, unformatted or formatted text, HTML, etc.

The Excel Object thing is also available on that Paste Options icon that
shows up after you paste. I find that easier to get to than going to
Edit/Paste Special, but YMMV.

 

[Hari Prasadh]

Hi Echo/Brian,

Thnx for the information (PPT table being default).

Presently Im transferring stuff from excel to powerpoint and there's lot of
such stuff which has to be pasted.

I already have a sort of a PPT template with dummy data (font, font size in
it well specified) in textboxes.

When I paste new/correct data from excel in to this all the font settings
within that goes haywire (even if i choose unformatted text). Actually I
want new data in editable form and cant use picture etc.

Then I select the text within the textbox and apply the desired font size
but it doesnt achieve the same effect as with original dummy data.

Mover I have one more problem in pasting data.

Lets say I have column A in excel with string data in which cell A2 is of a
different length as compared to A3 and so on. In column B I have
percentages.

If I select a certain range in Column A and B and paste in to PPT
(unformatted) then different rows have the percentages UNaligned to each
other. I have "stooped" down to the level of pressing space bars to align
the column B percentage values. Im spending unnecessary time in doing this
in a highly inefficient way and almost my hair out of frustration. Please
liberate me with a smarter way to do this stuff.

Im not able to do this properly in manual attempts, so dunno how I would be
able to accomplish while doing the same through automation.

Template has stuff in a single textbox with "2 columns" of data neatly
aligned, that is string data left aligned within textbox and
numbers/percentages as right aligned. (Its a textbox only and not a PPT
table kind if thing). In fear that i will have big problems in automating
this stuff, I have though of pasting as Excel files itself and then using
the ungroup feature. is that advisable? (is it a good solution file size
wise?) I cant have excel files itself because of bloating. is there a better
method (which could also be used while automating this task?)

Is it possible for me to achieve correct font size, alignment etc within a
textbox when pasting from excel. The templates I have with dummy data seem
to be so compact and what I am able to do is pathetic.

Please guide me.

Thanks a lot,
Hari
India

Oh, yeah. Thanks for the pickup, Bri-guy!

Yup, Paste Special will also work -- it gives you an option to paste as
Excel Object, unformatted or formatted text, HTML, etc.

The Excel Object thing is also available on that Paste Options icon that
shows up after you paste. I find that easier to get to than going to
Edit/Paste Special, but YMMV.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

Hari,
Echo is smarter than me in most of these cases, and I might also
suggest that you can choose PasteSpecial and choose the Excel object
choice and you will have a list like you expect.

PPT 2003 changed the default for pasting XL objects as PPT tables
(yuch!!) and you have to work through the PasteSpecial options to make
it behave (vbg).

Brian Reilly, PowerPoint MVP