Importing word tables into pagemaker

james chapman

unread,

Mar 10, 2003, 10:23:57 AM3/10/03

to

is it possible to import WORD .doc tables into pm7, keeping the table and its content intact? i am importing the word document using the 'PLACE' function but tables seem to vanish and their content move all over the place.

thanks
jim

Donald Gruener

unread,

Mar 10, 2003, 10:40:24 AM3/10/03

to

See the Tables section of the FAQ:

PageMaker FAQ > 4. Tables <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@@.ef8504d>

Bob Levine

unread,

Mar 10, 2003, 12:32:52 PM3/10/03

to

If you're doing lots of this, I'd suggest looking into ID. You'll never
be happy with PM's table support.

Bob

james chapman

unread,

Mar 11, 2003, 6:32:48 AM3/11/03

to

yer it seems a bit of a long winded process.

thanks

jim

Rob Searle

unread,

Mar 11, 2003, 7:33:02 AM3/11/03

to

I regularly update a league table in PageMaker with a table created in Excel and I'm sure you can do the same with a tabbed Word document..

I set up the table in PageMaker with the relevant 11 tabs per line, using a paragraph style. The Excel file has 11 cells per row. To import the updated table, I highlight the PM table contents and replace the entire story. Bingo, the numbers in the Excel cells "stick" to the correct tabs.

Try importing a Word file with tabs in the same way, making sure you click on Show Filter Preferences/Import Tables in the Place dialogue box.

Carrie Russell

unread,

Mar 17, 2003, 11:58:56 AM3/17/03

to

James,
I use Word tables daily! And love it!
But PageMaker being PageMaker you have to convince it to take the file. I create my tables in word, place a frame around it and modify the frame (only height, to At least a couple of points longer than the table.)the helps with not being able to see the bottom of the table.

Once the table is created, I select the frame and copy it (ctrl C) in Word, go to my PageMaker publication and do a Paste Special, select “Microsoft Word Document Object” and select “OK”.

The table is now in PageMaker but probably looks strange. This is ok, double click on the strange looking thing and open it back up, select Update in the File option and then “Close and Return” to PageMaker. The Table will then look normal. It will also be updateable by double clicking at anytime.

Good luck!
Carrie Russell
AGCO Corp.
carrie....@agcocorp.com

Bob Levine

unread,

Mar 17, 2003, 12:08:40 PM3/17/03

to

It will also most likely fail to work with high end printing. For office
level stuff it might work, but don't be surprised to see that table
print in the wrong place on the page or not at all.

Bob

Jay Chevako

unread,

Mar 17, 2003, 3:38:50 PM3/17/03

to

"Carrie Owen"

> I use Word tables daily! And love it!
>

Word has to be the most frustrating program ever. I have to convert two
annual reports back to word for eventual filing with the SEC. (I Use
Quark/ID to build my tables as Pagemaker doesn't have nested text boxes) My
tables are hand built to exact measurements ahead of time. Word seems to
want to dynamically expand everything. Pasting columns into tables, word
will repeat numbers from the begining, unless you have the exact number of
rows selected, as you have paragraph returns. Tabbed text will paste in fine
for a while, then word decides it doesn't like it, so I have to manually
convert text to table using paragraph deliniators, for a while, until word
decides to accept tabbed text again. Tables will suddenly ignore the styles
assigned, reverting to something else.

Most of my problems with Word are due to my own ignorance, but the damn
program is not consistent in it's behaivior. I have a lot of repetitive
tasks to perform, and when Word changes the way it does things in mid flow,
it can really mess things up.
Jay

John Davies

unread,

Mar 17, 2003, 4:53:44 PM3/17/03

to

Hi, Jay,

> Word has to be the most frustrating program ever.
>

Hear, hear. How do you turn that damn auto-format off- permanently?

All you can hear in our place is "I hate Word!"
(Well that's not strictly true, but this a family forum.)

Iechyd da! John
Merseyside UK
Written at Mon, 17 Mar 2003 21:08 GMT, probably posted later.

Jay Chevako

unread,

Mar 18, 2003, 9:06:12 AM3/18/03

to

"John Davies"

> All you can hear in our place is "I hate Word!"
> (Well that's not strictly true, but this a family forum.)
>

My remarks are of a similar nature.

More venting.

Why would having a tab stop assigned in a style effect the text, when there
are no tabs in said text?

Decimal tabs don't seem to work right either.
Jay

Bob Levine

unread,

Mar 18, 2003, 8:56:49 AM3/18/03

to

Which autoformat feature are you talking about?

I've used Word quite extensively and it's actually an excellent piece of
software if used for reports and that type of document. It's certainly
not very good for anything involving pagelayout.

Bob

james chapman

unread,

Mar 18, 2003, 11:34:12 AM3/18/03

to

thanks for your ideas
jim

John Davies

unread,

Mar 18, 2003, 11:56:43 AM3/18/03

to

Hi, Bob,

> Which autoformat feature are you talking about?

Things like a leading tab is automatically converted to an indent, and the line after a soft-return/line break has different tabs. Crazy. Under auto-correct I have EVERYTHING auto unchecked inclcuding auto-format, and also auto-update is switched off. Drvies me crazy. I often end up in Notepad to strip out the crap.

Sorry, I can see I'm getting on my soapbax!

Iechyd da! John
16:56 18/03/03 GMT

Peter Linnell

unread,

Mar 18, 2003, 11:58:34 PM3/18/03

to

Hi Bob and John,

Word format internally is not the cleanest. From what I understand it akin to a straight data dump to your hard disk. Converting even between different versions can sometimes be tricky.

One possible solution: Get Open Office or Star Office and open and resave. I have found that it does a reasonably good job of eliminating and shrinking - sometimes - MS Office Docs of all kinds. Star Office can also generate decent postscript on its own.

I can easily import formatted Excel tables, export as ps, then drop it on Distiller or Ghostscript to export EPS, depending on platform. Works well and the fonts, colors and shading come through nicely.

Both openoffice and Star Office also come with a Powerpoint type app, where you can do the same trick.

Open Office is a free download at <http://openoffice.org>

HTH,
Peter

John Davies

unread,

Mar 19, 2003, 4:19:05 AM3/19/03

to

Hi, Peter,

> Open Office

Thanks. I have a copy of OO at home, which I should use more. But here in the factory, installation of unauthorised software can lead to trouble with the IT boys/Network admin, assuming Win2K rights will allow it. I shan't go into the rows over installing/upgrading to Acrobat Reader 5…

Iechyd da! John
09:18 19/03/03 GMT

Jay Chevako

unread,

Mar 20, 2003, 4:39:48 PM3/20/03

to

"John Davies" .

>
> Sorry, I can see I'm getting on my soapbax!
>

Make some room on that soapbox.

I have renamed Word that "Explitive, Explitive Program", accompanied by lots
of pounding of desks.

After working for three days on a document, Word decided to change to it's
"default" margins and it would not let me change back. after much scrambling
I found that by saving back to a previous version (word 4.0 for mac, I am
working this on a mac) I was able to reset my margins, but it scrambled all
of my tables, 60 + pages had to have the "Cell vertical Alignment" reset.
Then it proceeded to crash every few minutes. Last night I was hitting
command S in my sleep.

I am tempted to uninstall the damn program and pretend I don't have it.
Jay

Carrie Russell

unread,

Mar 24, 2003, 1:48:33 PM3/24/03

to

Word has to be the most frustrating program ever.

I have been using Word and PageMaker together for over six years... I have more issues with the four letter word "Font" than I ever had with Word.

Carrie

John Davies

unread,

Mar 25, 2003, 11:17:18 AM3/25/03

to

Hi, Jay,

> Last night I was hitting command S in my sleep.

Oh dear. It is bad.

Iechyd da! John
16:17 25/03/03 GMT

kasthoorip...@gmail.com

unread,

Aug 1, 2013, 5:39:36 AM8/1/13

to

sir i need one software name pls u know means send me the software name
microsoft word tables without changing the alignment convert to adobe pagemaker