Script to insert a formatted Excel table not working

Hi Richard,

will your code work differently for small tables, just some table rows?

Does it make a difference if you test a small table vs a complex and long one?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Hi Richard,

could it be that you are tricked by that issue, a dialog box that could pop up when an Excel file exceeds a certain complexity or length and that suggests to switch off importing formatted tables ?

The message reads:

"You can speed up import if you place the cells unformatted. Would you like to speed up import this way?"

[ ] Do not show again

( Roughly translated from my German InDesign. )

If you now check that dreaded option "Do not show again" and press the Enter key to never see this dialog again you are tricked, because you automatically agreed with that offer, because "Yes" is the active button! From then on tables will always be placed unformatted independently from the import options you do before.

Read into this where the issue came up lately:

Importing excel into Indesign
michaelv71857798, Mar 29, 2021
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/importing-excel-into-indesign/m-p/11934841#M420277

My answer in the same thread, where I tried to solve this riddle:
Laubender, Apr 15, 2021
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/importing-excel-into-indesign/m-p/11972051#M422329

I must admit that I also was tricked, but I did not check "[ ] Do not show again", so I was able to see what I did wrong.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

I believe you have to also set the alignment options for the incoming cells. Just tested successfully on my Big Sur Mac running ID 16.0.1: 

app.excelImportPreferences.tableFormatting = TableFormattingOptions.EXCEL_FORMATTED_TABLE;
app.excelImportPreferences.alignmentStyle = AlignmentStyleOptions.SPREADSHEET;
alert(app.excelImportPreferences.tableFormatting);
myTextFrame.place(myFile,true);