Pasting text from powerpoint tables?

[PeteA]

Hi - I've just updated to the latest version which I'm pleased to say resolves both the pdf arrow issue and the text issue I had. I have a new problem/issue - I do have a work around but would be interested to know if anyone has a quicker one.

Xara will not paste text copied from a table in powerpoint 2010. My workaround is to copy and paste the table text into a text box within powerpoint and then copy that text into Xara. However I do a lot of pasting from tables in powerpoint and obviously if i could copy direct (as I could from older versions of powerpoint) then my workflow time would half for this - can anyone help?!

[mwenz]

Hello Pete,

See the attached screen shot. I pasted the entire table from PP as an Enhanced metafile, removed the clip region and the text is live. I also copied an individual cell's text and pasted it. But it could be something about the table, the font, etc. Can you upload a sample PP file? If so, you might need to ZIP it up first.

However, even though I can paste from PP (Office 2010) I opt to produce a PDF and import it. Is that an option for you?

Take care, Mike

[PeteA]

thanks Mike - yup I can do that too - try highlighting a column of text and then pasting that into xara as unformatted text- I need to be able to do that as I do all text formatting etc etc in Xara and need to be able to alter the spaces etc etc. It only became a problem since MS Ppt 2010. I have the same issue with graphs from ppt - they used to paste in as lines (which I could adjust the thickness) whereas now lines come in as "thin" rectangles - ie not easily adjustable. I suspect it's a microsoft issue (no surprise there)

[mwenz]

Hi Pete--I do not get a dialog to be able to choose unformatted text. If I copy an entire column, I get the background cells as well as shown in the screen shot.

Take care, Mike

[mwenz]

Though I know it is a work-around, try saving the PP page/presentation as an XPS and copy the text from it.

Mike

[amoore]

You're right, Pete. I can't even paste text from a PPT 2010 table into a plain text editor, much less XDP.

Mike's suggestion works. I was able to copy from the XPS document and paste into the text editor. I was also able to copy the column into Word 2010, swipe the text from the table in Word, and paste it into the text editor. If you can paste it into a text editor, you can paste it into XDP.

FYI, pasting into a plain text editor such as NotePad or NoteTab cleans out any formatting. Just swipe again in the text editor, copy and paste into Xara. When you have no "paste as unformatted text" option, this method is a quick, easy and free alternative.

[PeteA]

ok thanks everyone - clearly a powerpoint issue rather than Xara - sounds about right really!

[mwenz]

Once again, I would like to highlight my work flow. While a table editor would be a great inclusing in XDP, I choose to currently design a finished table or chart in whatever application, produce a PDF or XPS document and import it. Kind of a design once thing. They are scalable being vector and I am done.

Building a table in Xara products is too time consuming.

Take care, Mike

[ozinm]

You're right, Pete. I can't even paste text from a PPT 2010 table into a plain text editor, much less XDP.

That's something I noticed as well.
I put together a short macro that solves this issue so I thought I'd share it with you in case it's of any use.
Feel free to grab it from here:
http://www.linkitdesign.com/blog/exp...tables-as-text

If you notice any bugs or have any improvements, please feel free to let me know.

All the best
Marc

[Acorn]

Marc, well composed VBA but probably OTT for most in TG.
Would it not be simpler to export PP to HTML and lift the table detail from there?

Acorn