Copy Excel charts into Illustrator?

[_Jenn_Kruk_]

Hi All-

I NEED to get charts that I have created in Excel (Microsoft Excel 2008 for MAC, Version 12.1.1) into Adobe Illustrator (CS2, 12.0.1).

I have hundreds of charts to do this with, so remaking all of the charts in Illustrator isn't really feasible. In addition, I must include error bars which I don't think Illustrator is able to do.

I also need high resolution images (which I why was told I have to use Illustrator in the first place) that are publication quality.

PLEASE HELP - I have been spending hours trying to find a way to do this and have been unsuccessful.

Thanks everyone,
jenn

[Guest]

Here is a video!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3CJfBlZuW0

Adobe illustrator CS3, M/S Excel 2003, HWP 2002(Korean Wordprocess),

Macro Keyboard, script, Action ...

[jclarx]

I came here with the same problem as the original poster. After trying all the "solutions" listed here, I found a simple solution that really worked for me. I can see that each user has unique problems, but here's the one that works in my case, using Mac (specs below)--

Create a PDF from Excel -- INSTEAD of using the inbuilt Mac option to do this, use the Adobe PDF printer driver.

There may be a few issues that are not useful to some - depending on your workflow, such as the text all comes in as outlines and some elements were images (not editable without tracing), but the borders are compound paths, etc., so this (for me) though not 100% ideal, is a very workable method.

All the other solutions listed in this topic/query did NOT work for me, but the simple difference of how to make the PDF made it work!

Maybe my post will help another whose symptoms are the same.

Joan

Excel 2008; Mac OS X 10.5.8; AI CS5 v.15.0.2

[Guest]

I found the solution after stumbling for a while.  So this works with Office 2011 and Illustrator CS5 (for OSX).  Do a right click Save AS PDF of the chart.  That should import fine into AI.  Now the reason the text is all messed is that MS Office's new fonts (Cambria, etc.) AI does not know what to do with.  I changed that fonts to Times and the tex imported perfrectly AI.  Problem solved, at least for me.

[Ellie_Jay_Kay]

I am having the same issue - I tried all of these suggestions - AND YES - IT USED TO WORK!!!! 

(I also prefer pasting into and working in GOOD OLD FREEHAND MXII!) 

So, I opened up Illustrator 2 which I still have on my Mac and the Excel graphs pasted into that (RGB) file as vectors perfectly again.

Then I copy that file into the Illustrator CS5 file.  Now I can work with them!

Very frustrating when so-called improvements are NOT improvements!

[Guest]

Hi All -

I recently upgraded to CS5 and encountered the same issue as people were having using CS3.  I also use illustrator to create scientific figures for publication and use to be able to take the plane graphs and charts that excel produces and actually turn them into a decent product.

I've read through this forum's posts and thought I would contribute a bit.

I have both Excel 2004 and 2008 for mac.  (Sad, but 2008 was too slow and could not handel all the data that I have).  I first ran into the problem, trying to copy a graph from Excel 2004 into Illustrator CS5, and it places it as an "embded object" rather then giving me vectors that I can work with.

Using Excel 2008, It looks like I get a vector image, no problem - however, this was after doing the create an object and drag it to the desktop trick (so I can't say if that effected the problem, causing it to work).

The create a PDF in excel and then open that in Illustrator seams to work ok (but I don't care too much about fonts, just the lines).

Does anyone have experience with the new office 2011?  All this makes me nervous - and its why I keept my old version of Illustrator around for so long.  This seams like something that Adobe should help to fix in future software updates...

One thing however that I do think I should mention and found intersting is that I was having no issue importing Excel charts by copy/paste into Illustrator CS3 (as people were discribing).  However, I had to re-install office 2004 at one point, so I wonder if the issue could be solved by re-installing office after you've upgraded your Adobe package?  (Just a thought).

Lastly - setting your illustrator document to RBG vs. CMYK is a real issue and a bug I was avoiding in CS3.  You can of course always change it back at the last minute before it goes to publication.  (And this was an issue not just going from Excel to Illustrator, but other cut/paste jobs as well).

Hopefully this also helps some.

Mac OS 10.6.8, Adobe CS5, Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008.  (2004 re-installed after 2008).

[cincysaab95]

I'm having a similar but different problem. For a training class that starts tomorrow evening, I had to create a faux, rather large (33"x33") Scrabble type board. 30 squares 2" each with borders, etc. I created it in Excel as at the time, that seemed the easiest however, I tried importing into Illustrator & Indesign to no avail. It seems each 8.5x11 section as 1 page. In Illustrator, I set up a 33"x33" art board & tried to place the spreadsheet to no avail. Any insight anyone could provide would be most helpful. Thanks so much, in advance.

[AaronPDX]

For anyone having the issue of scatter chart data point markers becoming raster when pasting the chart into AI from Excel, see the solution posted here; it involves relinking each embedded linked data point to a new AI file.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2011-macexcel/excel-scatter-plots-are-pixelate...

[Larry G. Schneider]

You can also as easily turn off the default drop shadows on the data points in Excel which are the cause of the rasterization.

[AaronPDX]

I wish it were so simple, Larry. But the shadow issue does not apply on scatter plot graphs. All effects are turned off and still the data markers are rasterized upon paste into AI.

[Larry G. Schneider]

Not in my experience. Are the data markers just a filled symbol without a stroke? I did all my styling in AI.

[AaronPDX]

Nope, they are embedded jaggy rasters. I'm happy to send you a test file but it could well be my versions (Excel 2011 Mac, AI CS6).

[Larry G. Schneider]

Can you post it on a file sharing site like Dropbox? I'd like to look at it.

[AaronPDX]

Here you are, Larry:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19888329/test.xlsx

[Larry G. Schneider]

Interesting. Used to do this all the time but you seem to be right. I can't figure out why the Legend data points are as objects but the data series points are images.

[AaronPDX]

Maybe you're using a different version of one or the other program now?

[Extraverage · Accepted solution]

Most of the comments are too old to be relevant here, so if anyone still wonders how to solve the same issue (so sad it still exists btw) – the best trick for me was: Right click on the chart and export as SVG. Illustrator opened that successfully.

[karenpy]

thanks for the tip - this is brilliant and worked for me. For Mac, right click and choose SAVE AS PICTURE... then select SVG and all the text came in correctly. Crazy this hasn't been fixed yet but many thanks again.

[CC1898]

I get a corrupted and/or empty SVG when I do that on a Mac, not sure why. In excel I ended up having to 1) Change the font to a non system or cloud one, 2) make sure there's no bold or italic formatting applied -- excel applies a faux treatment, it doesn't actually switch the the bold version of the font, 3) then I am able to copy & paste with editible text in-tact.