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Question

Is it possible to automate endless "paste special"s from Word table cells to Framemaker table cells?

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
October 28, 2017
3 replies
1686 views

Tables in Word are recreated in Framemaker 13....styles are already set up for this, putting the data in the correct font size, centered (or not), etc....there are FM table styles for the table header row, the main body cells, and the footnotes. Currently, I am copying each individual Word table cell's contents, and then "paste special"ing each into the corresponding Framemaker table cell (choosing "as text" from the pulldown menu that appears, and hitting "ok")....after the initial copying in Word, it's several keystrokes, including a mouse move up to that pulldown menu, just to paste in each cell, over and over and over again. It would be so nice to be able to automate (with scripts, or macros?) just the pasting-in part....ie. I would copy the number in the Word cell, and then by clicking the mouse pointer in the correct Framemaker table cell and executing some custom keystroke, the "paste special" and choosing of "text" would happen automatically.....and, viola! the number magically appears in the Frameker cell, with correct style applied (I've already applied my Framemaker table style to all the cells I plan to populate by this copy/paste-special method).

I've read that some elaborate Framemaker scripting can be done with things like ExtendScript, and others....but what about this relatively SIMPLE task....the clicking in the cell, choosing "paste special", choosing "text", and hitting "ok"....it would seem like it shouldnt' be tough to automate that...? I've found a few forums and pages talking about scripting, but they usually seem a bit outdated, for older versions of Framemaker....can anyone tell me if what I'm asking about is even possible? Ideally without purchasing some several hundred dollar plugin.... what can File/Script do....anything like this? It's not that it's a lot of work for any one table cell....but it becomes very tedious when multiplied by potentially hundreds of table cells (some documents have multiple, very large tables)....anything to speed up the formatting in this way frees up time for actual editing! Thanks in advance for any help/advice --

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DavidCFrye9643826

Inspiring

Sorry to necro this thread, but I ran across it while looking for something else and have an alternate solution.

To avoid issues like the ones the OP describes resulting from copy/pasting the whole table in and (for me, at least) some quirkiness I've experienced with importing, try this:

Open your word doc.
Convert the table to text (using the convert option in Word).
Copy the resulting list into Frame.
Convert to table and select your, hopefully, pre-made table style.
Done.

No need to do additional formatting steps or copy/paste, provided that you've setup your table tag correctly. The only additional step you might have to perform would be for footers. That should consist only of selecting Add Row > Footer and pasting the necessary text in.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi ginbelt ,

I'm on break from teaching an online FrameMaker class—you have covered a lot of ground here. I'll answer what I can now and will cycle back later.

File > Import > File will import any supported file format into FrameMaker—Word, Excel, Photoshop, Illustrator and so many more. Try this: create a new portrait document and import one of your complex Word files. The tables, figures and equations will all be there. It is by far the fastest way to work. You can also use File > Open on a Word document, which converts it to a FrameMaker file.

Pasting entire tables is an another alternative. It's more time-consuming than importing, but way quicker than pasting cell by cell.

I'm guessing that you have rows formatted as heading rows, but they are not truly heading rows. Heading rows, along with the TableTitle repeat when a table breaks to a second page. Importing and pasting tables from words require the extra steps to convert them.

the footnote cell was not right....the text was overlapping the cell border in a spot.

There is no difference between creating a table from scratch in FrameMaker or formatting one that originated in Word or Excel. Something is wrong with the footnote tag that can be fixed.

I also enjoy the creativity of tables (and layout) but live in the mountains because I enjoy the great outdoors. My goal is to work quickly and efficiently to get my work done so that I can go out and play. In my 500-1000 page Fm docs, I don't want to spend any more time that is absolutely necessary to get the job done.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

ginbeltAuthor

Participant

> File > Import > File will import any supported file format into FrameMaker—Word, Excel, Photoshop, Illustrator
> and so many more. Try this: create a new portrait document and import one of your complex Word files.
> The tables, figures and equations will all be there. It is by far the fastest way to work. You can also use
> File > Open on a Word document, which converts it to a FrameMaker file.

I didn't mention this before, but you might've guessed it anyway, based on the fact that I did disclose that we have a large list of Framemaker styles we apply to the pasted-in Word documents: these styles reside in a Framemaker template that contains various Master pages, and Reference pages. In other words, I can't just start with a blank Portrait-oriented document; because of all the formatting and information in the template we use. The first several pages are the cover, and then front matter that (I think) is a Master page that can't be changed without going INTO that Master page (most of these pages are numbered with lower-case roman)...then, finally, we have page one, and then the left and right pages 2 and 3, which of course are the ones that will repeat and which make up the bulk of almost all of our reports. I'm just not sure how I can do a "File>Open" on a Word doc when I'm in a semi-intricate Frame template like this one, or do a File>Import either for that matter. I tried both, and wound up with a 4,700 some page document (the Word document pulled in is only 32 pages long). Many/most of the resulting Framemaker pages had only one letter per page within the text column -- but these all also had strange lettering outside the text column, which I've never even seen before, and other oddities. It was such a huge mess of gobblety gook that I'm either doing something very wrong even with this seemingly simple task, or you're working on an incorrect assumption about our workflow....I'm just not sure. I thought sure that the extreme longness of the resulting document was due to something about pulling it into one of our templates vs. pulling it into a brand new, blank Framemaker document, but that's not it, either, because I even tried it your way, and got the same 4,700 page mess! Weird. Cleaning this resulting Framemaker document up cannot possibly be faster work than the way we're already doing it by copy/pasting, so I'm going to assume this not the result you assumed I would get...

I was getting a message about having "unresolved cross-references". Then, trying it again, I noticed an option at the bottom of the "Import" box that I hadn't noticed before: a choice you have to make of either "import by reference" or "copy in to document"....."import by reference" was the one that was already checked, so I figured I'd try the OTHER choice.....and I got the same "unresolved cross-references" message...when I hit "OK" for that one, I got a 2nd warning-type message: "Loss of data may occur while importing a Docx file. To avoid data loss, cancel and convert the file format to Doc or RTF before importing." I don't want to lose data, but I was curious to see what would result if I hit "OK" to that one, too, and did, and got a THIRD box popping up, a "Word Import" dialog box....telling me that "no match styles names found. All styles will be added to the document catalogs."

Anyway, hitting "OK for that one got me another 4,700+ page document of gibberish.

Pretty much all Word documents we work with are in docx format....and as far as loss goes, I always thought that converting those to "doc" or "rtf" definitely would give data loss.....so not sure if that is an option for us...

This was alll thru starting with a brand-new, blank Framemaker page. I can't imagine starting with our template would've made things easier, but probably harder and even more complicated. It seems like no matter how many ways I try to get these Word documents into Framemaker, it's a mess for us, which could be why whoever it was (before I came into the job) who instituted the copy/paste method we do use, and set up the styles, and Framemaker template, did it that way....because when we paste the Word text into Frame, it's almost always nearly ready as-is....and then a quick application of those awesome Frameker style sheets, and it's perfect. We manually place the figure and table anchors, as close to the callouts as we can get them, within reason.....and figures do go pretty quickly. The ONLY thing that doesn't is the tables, and the only part of that that's slow-going,honestly, is the cell-by-cell pasting....hence why I asked about automation in the first place. Anyhow, I'd love to find out there's some one thing being done that's causing the big mess I'm getting trying it this way, but something tells me that's not the case (could be the pessimist in me....!)...

Barb Binder

Community Expert

I suggested a new document so that you can see how this works, since you were unaware that you can import (or open) a Word doc with tables into FrameMaker, without having to worry about your template or formatting. Of course you will use your template once you understand the process.

I can't imagine how a 32-page Word doc becomes a 4700-page fm doc—that's neither normal or expected—but of course, I can't tell you from here what is going on with your specific files. All I can do is review the workflow with you and let you take it from there.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Forgive me, but I have to ask... why not import the Word tables into FrameMaker, remove the overrides that come along and then assign the styles? Wouldn't that be less time-consuming that copying/pasting a cell at a time?

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

ginbeltAuthor

Participant

I don't know - I'm doing it the way i was shown. The tables are recreated, from scratch, using the Table/Insert Table dialog box. I hadn't used Framemaker since 2004 when coming into this job, so I'm far from expert in what it can do and how it interacts with other formats. Let me answer your question with a question: how do I import a Word table into Framemaker...? And once IN Frame, is it fully editable as it is if I had created that table in Frame (in other words....it doesn't import as a graphic, or something, yes?)? And would it behave, within the text, as a created-within-Framemaker table would, ie, able to move and flow as the text will, but holding its overall position, inserted as cloe the table callout as possible (usually end of paragraph)? And how would I "remove the overrides that come along" ? If I can do th first two things, I already know how to assign the styles -- in Frame, that's always easy.

I assume there's a reason why it wasn't done the way you describe, but I'm willing to learn it and give it a try—maybe they just hadn't thought of it.These documents need to be fully editable up to the moment they're signed off upon, at which point they're converted to PDFs and published....we're not doing anything structured with them in other words...

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi ginbelt ,

Tables imported into FrameMaker from Word or Excel are fully editable. Some of my authors provide them within the Word documents, others send me a file with the tables as a separate Word document, and still others provide them as worksheets within an Excel spreadsheet. I can import all of those into FrameMaker via File > Import > File as editable tables with their table anchors so that they move with the text edits. Occasionally, authors will send images of a table—for those I have to go back and ask for the original, editable table in Word or Excel.

Like you, I have my paragraph, character and table styles set up in advance. Once I import the table(s) I go through the following steps:

Select the entire table
Set the row height
Remove custom ruling and shading (these linger from the pre-formatting all Word authors feel compelled to do)
Assign the table tag
Copy the table title from the body of the document, paste into the table title frame and assign the table title tag (drag and drop works here as well)
Select the top rows, cut them and paste back as heading rows
Assign the paragraph tags to the heading rows, cell body rows and table footnotes

I'm a keyboard shortcut person, and can accomplish all of that with my hands on the keyboard. For others, using the Table Formatting toolbar may be a better fit. My strength is fast formatting, my weakness is spotting mistakes within the table—of course that's why I work with editors—but that is minimized if I am not involved in typing inside the tables.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

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