Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hello,

I need to copy values from a calc table into a table in writer (OOo 3.0 // Windows XP).
Let's say there are 9 values (3x3) in the calc table which I simply mark and then copy with CTRL+C.

In writer I have already setup a 3x3 table (no headline) for these values. To insert the values I have either set the cursor into the first cell or marked the whole table and then pressed CTRL+V or used "paste special".

In all cases writer does not insert the 9 values into the available table, but created a calc object.

Does anyone know a way to simply copy the values? The table in writer is already formatted and I have to keep these formats, all I need are the values.

Thanks for your help,

Stefan

Unfortunately, it is not possible to paste only the values from Calc into a Writer table.

You have to do it in several steps:

1. Copy the Calc cells to the clipboard.
2. In a Writer document, Edit > Paste Special, as formatted text (or HTML). This paste will create a new table with the Calc content, formatted as it was in Calc (as far as possible).
3. Select the entire new table (Ctrl+A, pressed twice, usually works).
4. Format > Default Formatting. This removes the formatting that came from Calc.
5. If you need the data in an existing Writer table, copy the new table to the clipboard and paste into your existing table

Here is the official enhancement request: Issue 24500: Pasting table content into existing writer tables. It has a target of OOo 3.1 (due in late March), so hopefully this problem will be fixed soon.

Another way. Instead of using Formatted Text use Unformatted Text, select the result and do Table > Convert > Text to Table and just click OK.

Good point! I had forgotten about that. Thanks, JohnV.

Hi,

thanks for your suggestions, but you missed one point in my posting. Using Format > Default Formatting removes the formatting that came from Calc, that's right.

But when I now copy the created table into the existing writer table, the formats of the writer table will not change, but the the values do not take the text formats of the cell. The values still have the standard format.

Stefan

Yes, OOo does not handle this kind of manipulation very well.

You may want to look into defining your own table "autoformat" that can be applied to produce the necessary formatting after you get all the data in place. I haven't used that myself, so I can't say if it will solve your problem.

There is one other possibility: use the Calc sheet as a data store and bring the data into the Writer table using a merge. You can put the database fields in the table and format the table however you like. Copying the data into the fields in the table will not change the formatting.

That's still fairly awkward, both to set up and to use. E.g. Writer can't duplicate table rows to match the number of rows in the data store; you have to do that manually.

You may also want to look at using the Sun Report Builder: it's designed to generate text documents from databases.

Thanks for the workaround. It sucks that this is necessary but at least it is possible.

Please consider fixing this.

acknak wrote: Here is the official enhancement request: Issue 24500: Pasting table content into existing writer tables. It has a target of OOo 3.1 (due in late March), so hopefully this problem will be fixed soon.

Has this enhancement actually been done? I'm using OOo 3.2 but still have the same difficulty. The workaround works but it's pretty tedious when you do a lot of pasting back and forth between calc and writer, as I do. I need to get on with my work not spend time reformatting and reformatting copied/pasted bits.

Check the report: Target milestone: OOo 3.4.