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Problem pasting text into Excel 2007

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6 replies

by barthelm

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When I try to copy/paste text from Word or other applications into Excel 2007 it only allows me to paste the content of the Clipboard as a bitmap, why is the happening?

I've tried paste and paste special, neither works.

6 replies

by thumbsup2

Try pasting first into Notepad, then copying from Notepad and pasting into Excel. That will strip the formatting from any other program and hopefully paste plain text instead of a BMP.

by barthelm

This is the work around that I've been using. I was hoping to find the reason behind the problem. Thanks.

by thumbsup2

... first of all, it's not a problem. That is by design.

When you copy something in Word to the clipboard, there are many hidden characters used for formatting. Pasting the contents of the clipboard directly into a smart application such as Excel will take all of those hidden characters with it and if it can not do so, it will paste as a bitmap (BMP). It's been that way for a long time. If you only want to 'grab' the text and not all of the formatting that goes with it, you always have to run it through a simple text editor such as Notepad first.

by unhappyuser

First try copying some text from Wordpad or Notepad to see if the issue is in Word. It could be an issue with the document.

What version are you using?

Has anything changed recently?

EMD

by unhappyuser

Try setting you Excel settings back to the defaults or perform a repair on Excel. You could also reinstall the software as it sounds like a bug/glitch and a reinstall may be the only way to resolve it. Good luck!

EMD

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