Loss of cell text when pasting

**pogrady** · 02-15-2010, 10:03 AM

Hi.

I have a laptop display extended to a VDU so I have two instances of Excel open so that I can view two Excel files at the same time, rather than the usual way of opening both files in a single instance of Excel (in which case you can only view one worksheet at a time and have to switch between Windows).

Copying and pasting cells from a worksheet in one instance of Excel to a worksheet in the other instance of Excel results in the text being truncated. Excel isn't consistent and can shorten the text to 34 characters, 42 characters etc.

Copying and pasting cells within the same worksheet, pasting to another worksheet but within the same file or pasting to another worksheet in a different file but in the same instance of Excel doesn't appear to be a problem. I have ensured that the cells are of the same type, i.e. Text.

Has anyone else experienced this problem and more importantly, do you know a solution? I would really like to keep both worksheets in view at the same time so need two instances of Excel open. Is this problem just a characteristic of Excel and has no solution?

Thanks in advance,

Paul

**Richard Buttrey** · 02-15-2010, 10:14 AM

Hell Paul,

Interesting.

I can't say I've ever used this configuration but are both instances of Excel opened from your local PC or is one, or perhaps both, opened from a network server.

You suggest switching between windows is a nuisance, but if you only have two workbooks open in memory, switching is just an ALT-Tab key combination away which is probably even quicker than moving your mouse across to your VDU.

However if you find out why please post back for the benefit of others.

Regards

**pogrady** · 02-15-2010, 10:25 AM

Hi Richard.

Thanks for the reply. Both instances of Excel are opened from the same laptop.

I'm not being lazy when it comes to using Alt-Tab or even switching worksheets via the menu, it's just that the work I'm doing is greatly assisted by being able to review the two worksheets side-by-side. With 1000s of cells and several worksheets it's easy to become dissorientated when constantly switching from one to the other.

I have a couple of colleagues who have also experienced this problem but have found no solution.

Paul

**Richard Buttrey** · 02-15-2010, 10:36 AM

Hi Paul,

I've just tried copying and pasting lengthy strings between two instances of Excel on my laptop, one 2007 and the other 2003, without any truncation.

In your OP you mentioned truncating at 32 & 42 characters. Does this mean that it's not even consistent in truncating? Can you spot anything in the text strings which might be problematical, line feed characters perhaps, although I don't know even then why this would cause a problem.

Can you upload the source workbook with the cell that truncates when pasted?

Rgds

**pogrady** · 02-15-2010, 10:56 AM

Hello again.

CORRECTION: I foolishly stated that Excel limits pasting to 34 - 42 characters but these were words, not characters. I have just copied & pasted four big cells and below are the number of words, characters and characters with spaces respectively which were copied accross:

(36, 219, 254)
(43, 213, 252)
(44, 211, 253)
(45, 210, 253)

It looks as though Excel is limiting pastes to 2^8 = 256 characters (with spaces), which makes me think it is an inherent built-in limitation.

To replicate the process I went through, you need to double-click on an Excel file. To open the second file, launce Excel from the Start menu and open a second file from within the Excel file menu. It would be interesting to see if you have the same problem using the same version of Excel but opening two instances as described above.

I'll try uploading source data later but will need to edit the text first due the nature of it's contents (it is UK Restricted data).

Cheers,

Paul

**Richard Buttrey** · 02-15-2010, 12:13 PM

Hello Paul,

Yes indeed. Although a cell will display 1024 characters there is a 255 character limit on the number of characters you can copy and paste into another instance of the Excel App.

It's probably not a solution for you given that you're looking for something simple, but you can save a workbook containing >255 characters in a cell as a csv file and import it into another instance of Excel and see all characters.
You could create a macro to do it by clicking a button or attaching the macro to some other event, which whilst not perfect would speed things up.

Regards