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robertg123
Participant
February 2, 2017
Answered

Copy & Paste issue between Excel & Illustrator CS5

  • February 2, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 2906 views

I am operating within macOS Sierra v. 10.12.3.

There is problematic issue with the copy and paste function between Excel v 15.30 and Illustrator CS5 v 15.0.2.

The Paste function from excel into illustrator results in incomprehensible symbols on the illustrator art board, which also prompts illustrator to crash.

Is there a preference setting that needs updating?

Is there a patch to resolve this issue?

Thank you.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Mike_Gondek10189183

    Try exporting Excel to .pdf, and placing that. Or open in Acporabt and copy the characters and paste into Illustrator.

    3 replies

    F
    frazerpayne
    Participating Frequently
    February 27, 2023

    In Excel, exporting as an SVG is more reliable than exporting as a PDF. The PDF can still open up with the same text problem. SVGs work better.

    Mike_Gondek10189183
    Community Expert
    Mike_Gondek10189183Community ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    August 28, 2017

    Try exporting Excel to .pdf, and placing that. Or open in Acporabt and copy the characters and paste into Illustrator.

    J
    jasonh49881134
    Participant
    August 28, 2017

    Yes, I can paste into a third application like TextEdit then re-copy and paste into Illustrator. This worked.

    I was also able to copy from Mac Excel to the Windows version of Illustrator without issue. 

    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Monika GauseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 2, 2017

    Probably it's just caused by the font Calibri in Excel. Change to a different one before copying

    But ontop of that: you're using outdated software on a system that doesn't support it anymore.

    J
    jasonh49881134
    Participant
    August 28, 2017

    I am having the same issue with the current versions.

    • Excel for Mac v15.36
      • Font Arial 11pt
    • macOS Sierra v10.12.6
    • Ai v2015.3.0

    See image for result of copy and paste from Excel to Illustrator.

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