+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 7 of 7

Textboxes and "Paste as picture"

  1. #1
    Eric
    Guest

    Textboxes and "Paste as picture"

    Hi all.

    I'm having a problem when I take a chart from Excel and past it into Word.
    I use Paste Special - Picture because otherwise it will embed the whole Excel
    file into the Word document.

    My problem is that my textboxes get re-arranged somehow through the pasting
    process. The wrapping is different and I end up with a bunch of white space
    at the bottom of the box. Does anyone know why this happens and if there's
    anything I can do to fix it?

    I'm using Excel and Word 2000 with SP3.

    Thanks!

    Eric

  2. #2
    John Mansfield
    Guest

    RE: Textboxes and "Paste as picture"

    Eric,

    Before copying you chart as a picture, try grouping the text boxes and the
    chart together first. To do so, hold down the shift key, select the text
    boxes, and then select the edge of the chart. Right-click on you mouse and
    select Grouping -> Group.

    To easily group textboxes in an embedded chart, I've found that it's easier
    to create the textbox in the spreadsheet and then drag the textboxes into
    position in the chart. Do not cut and paste them into the chart.

    Also, you may need to work with the order of the text boxes and the chart.
    You will need to order the textboxes in front of the chart. To order each
    textbox, click on the edge of the textbox, right-click on your mouse, and go
    to Order -> Bring to Front.

    ----
    Regards,
    John Mansfield
    http://www.pdbook.com

    "Eric" wrote:

    > Hi all.
    >
    > I'm having a problem when I take a chart from Excel and past it into Word.
    > I use Paste Special - Picture because otherwise it will embed the whole Excel
    > file into the Word document.
    >
    > My problem is that my textboxes get re-arranged somehow through the pasting
    > process. The wrapping is different and I end up with a bunch of white space
    > at the bottom of the box. Does anyone know why this happens and if there's
    > anything I can do to fix it?
    >
    > I'm using Excel and Word 2000 with SP3.
    >
    > Thanks!
    >
    > Eric


  3. #3

    Re: Textboxes and "Paste as picture"

    Hi Eric -

    Been there, done that.

    We've got some fairly complex documents - 30+ charts, 10+ tables in 30
    pages - that were built similarly, but we were importing WMF files
    instead of pictures from Excel, but if you know both you should also
    know that there wasn't much difference.
    Under Win95/Office 6, this worked fairly well. Under NT/2k/XP and
    Office 97/2k/XP, it was a catastrophe: the 16-bit WMF files from Office
    6 were replaced by 32-bit EMF files and our documents became unusable,
    especially when updating them.

    As far as I am concerned, Word is uncontrollable: you have to really
    jump through hoops in order to guarantee that chart 3 will always be,
    to a millimeter or so, on the same page in the same place. And when you
    updated in a certain sequence, then the chart boxes would disappear
    entirely. It's an acknowledged bug.

    So we abandoned Word entirely and do it all in Excel. We shrunk the
    cell grid to tiny dimensions in order to gain a fair degree of accuracy
    in placing elements on a page; we can now place charts exactly where
    they should go; we use text boxes (not Word boxes: there's a
    significant problem in the display attributes to a Word box that is
    controlled by VBA. It defaults to stretch to fit, which means that text
    is distorted whenever you add or subtract text. Known VBA problem,
    solveable by using Excel and Word Objects within a VB container...), we
    control the vertical and the horizontal. There is nothing wrong with
    your TV... :-)

    We were never able to work out a decent solution using Word and Excel:
    hence we only use Excel. Give it a try, you might be surprised how well
    it works.

    If you'd like a sample of what we did, I'll be happy to send it to you
    privately...

    John


  4. #4
    Jon Peltier
    Guest

    Re: Textboxes and "Paste as picture"

    Hi John -

    Everyone knows Word's a pain, but I've lately had some success using
    Word and Excel together to layout decent looking documents. I use tables
    in Word, with carefully defined sizes etc, to assure the layout. I use
    charts copied as pictures in Excel (using 'on screen' and 'as picture'
    options, not 'as printed' as you used in another recent post), pasted
    back into Excel to allow precise resizing, then copy the resized chaart
    pictures and paste into the Word tables as inline shapes.

    - Jon
    -------
    Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
    Peltier Technical Services
    Tutorials and Custom Solutions
    http://PeltierTech.com/
    _______

    [email protected] wrote:

    > Hi Eric -
    >
    > Been there, done that.
    >
    > We've got some fairly complex documents - 30+ charts, 10+ tables in 30
    > pages - that were built similarly, but we were importing WMF files
    > instead of pictures from Excel, but if you know both you should also
    > know that there wasn't much difference.
    > Under Win95/Office 6, this worked fairly well. Under NT/2k/XP and
    > Office 97/2k/XP, it was a catastrophe: the 16-bit WMF files from Office
    > 6 were replaced by 32-bit EMF files and our documents became unusable,
    > especially when updating them.
    >
    > As far as I am concerned, Word is uncontrollable: you have to really
    > jump through hoops in order to guarantee that chart 3 will always be,
    > to a millimeter or so, on the same page in the same place. And when you
    > updated in a certain sequence, then the chart boxes would disappear
    > entirely. It's an acknowledged bug.
    >
    > So we abandoned Word entirely and do it all in Excel. We shrunk the
    > cell grid to tiny dimensions in order to gain a fair degree of accuracy
    > in placing elements on a page; we can now place charts exactly where
    > they should go; we use text boxes (not Word boxes: there's a
    > significant problem in the display attributes to a Word box that is
    > controlled by VBA. It defaults to stretch to fit, which means that text
    > is distorted whenever you add or subtract text. Known VBA problem,
    > solveable by using Excel and Word Objects within a VB container...), we
    > control the vertical and the horizontal. There is nothing wrong with
    > your TV... :-)
    >
    > We were never able to work out a decent solution using Word and Excel:
    > hence we only use Excel. Give it a try, you might be surprised how well
    > it works.
    >
    > If you'd like a sample of what we did, I'll be happy to send it to you
    > privately...
    >
    > John
    >


  5. #5

    Re: Textboxes and "Paste as picture"

    Hi John -

    Sure, it **can** be done. But why??? :-)

    But one of my colleagues just got back from a dog & pony show of Adobe,
    and i think we have glimpsed the goly hrail: in Adobe 7 Professional
    there is a tool called "Designer" which works with XML. It allows us to
    define per XML our final product and use JavaScript to create PDF files
    (which is our goal in any case!) directly from any sort of Office
    components that can be accessed via JavaScript and XML.

    We just ordered an upgrade, will report how it works when we get around
    to testing it in April or May (workload before then prohibits creative
    solutions to any problems, just brute force like always...).

    But it looks like it's gonna be a major, major productivity
    improvement, since a huge amount of work (as you know) I've done in
    Excel has been placing charts, tables etc in order to create documents
    for mass production (for those who didn't follow this on the mailing
    list, I produce 114 reports of between 27 and 59 pages using Excel
    exclusively automagically from scratch to finished report in ca 14
    hours of pure computer time, generating over 5000 charts and 400 tables
    to create the necessary XLS sheets to generate PDFs from).

    I guesstimate that if this works - and that remains a big if - then we
    will return to using Excel to "merely" generate tables and charts and
    leave the DTP aspects to Adobe instead. This has the potential of
    reducing production time from 2 days to probably around 1 day...

    John


  6. #6
    Jon Peltier
    Guest

    Re: Textboxes and "Paste as picture"

    Hi John -

    The "why" is that for most people, the DTP aspects are much less
    involved than in your case, and perhaps there is still a significant
    amount of interaction required after Excel finishes before the final
    report is really final.

    For example, a project I'm working on has Excel crunching through a
    large number of pivot tables and regular charts, and these are all
    dumped into a Word template. In several places, there is room for my
    client to add his commentary, which he cannot do until he sees the
    charts in the preliminary Word document. He does his thing, which is
    easy because it's still in Office, not DTP, then prints it to a PDF file
    for distribution. He's not making several dozens of reports a month,
    only a few, so your approach, which you've optimized for your
    requirements, doesn't fit his.

    But it's always interesting to hear how other people have had to attack
    their own problems. I have another couple of clients who do lots of work
    in Adobe, so I'd be interested to hear your review.

    - Jon
    -------
    Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
    Peltier Technical Services
    Tutorials and Custom Solutions
    http://PeltierTech.com/
    _______

    [email protected] wrote:

    > Hi John -
    >
    > Sure, it **can** be done. But why??? :-)
    >
    > But one of my colleagues just got back from a dog & pony show of Adobe,
    > and i think we have glimpsed the goly hrail: in Adobe 7 Professional
    > there is a tool called "Designer" which works with XML. It allows us to
    > define per XML our final product and use JavaScript to create PDF files
    > (which is our goal in any case!) directly from any sort of Office
    > components that can be accessed via JavaScript and XML.
    >
    > We just ordered an upgrade, will report how it works when we get around
    > to testing it in April or May (workload before then prohibits creative
    > solutions to any problems, just brute force like always...).
    >
    > But it looks like it's gonna be a major, major productivity
    > improvement, since a huge amount of work (as you know) I've done in
    > Excel has been placing charts, tables etc in order to create documents
    > for mass production (for those who didn't follow this on the mailing
    > list, I produce 114 reports of between 27 and 59 pages using Excel
    > exclusively automagically from scratch to finished report in ca 14
    > hours of pure computer time, generating over 5000 charts and 400 tables
    > to create the necessary XLS sheets to generate PDFs from).
    >
    > I guesstimate that if this works - and that remains a big if - then we
    > will return to using Excel to "merely" generate tables and charts and
    > leave the DTP aspects to Adobe instead. This has the potential of
    > reducing production time from 2 days to probably around 1 day...
    >
    > John
    >


  7. #7

    Re: Textboxes and "Paste as picture"

    Hi Jon -

    I understand. I also work with charts and tables present in documents
    in order to write my commentary, and if he's just got a few to churn
    out, then your approach makes eminent sense.

    I'm now looking into how to generate what I need in XML in order to
    feed such a system. Guess that it means I'll be learning XML and
    JavaScript on top of my other work, but I'm also looking at Ruby as an
    alternative, since it seems to hash very, very nicely with XML.

    But it really means a different way of looking at these sorts of
    problems. We will probably outgrow Office as it currently exists, but
    will end up in Office.Net for many, many of our rather complex and
    arcane tasks.

    The future is gonna be exciting, albeit harder and harder: but if we
    can continue the kind of productivity increases that we have had over
    the last ten years, then I can continue getting the kind of raises I
    have been. And that's what drives this boy to do such crazy and wild
    things. :-)

    And I will keep y'all posted when we get to the point where we start
    playing with this more seriously...

    John


+ Reply to Thread

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts

Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0 RC 1