Copy/paste excel table into InDesign

[steffenm32535037]

Hi all,

I often have to make tables in InDesign, which I copy/paste from the excel file in which the calculations are made. Until recently (I guess after the latest update of InDesign) this worked very well, but now when I copy a table from excel, it pastes all data in the same column. I added two screenshots to make it more clear. The only way around now is copy/paste column per column, which is an absolute waste of time. Anybody who knows how I can solve this problem? Many thanks in advance!

[Steve Werner]

Nothing has changed in the way tables work.

But I have a hunch you may have forgotten an important point: When you're replacing cell data in an InDesign table, first select the cells that need to be replaced, then paste the exact same number of cells from Excel/Word that you're replacing them with.

[steffenm32535037]

Hi Steve, thanks for your reply.

I know this is how it works, I've been doing some intensive copy/pasting of tables over the last years

The excel files are on a shared server and I open them on Citrix in a Windows environment. I then copy/paste them to InDesign which is running locally on my macbook in iOS. I now found when I first copy paste the tables to a local excel file in iOS, the copy/paste works... At least this is a way around that might already save me some time!

But until recently, the copy/paste also worked directly from excels in a Citrix environment (my colleague is having the same issue). Strange but probably it has nothing to do with InDesign then.

[Steve Werner]

Yes, I don't work in those fancy server-based environments. It adds whole new ways for things to screw up!

[webbgroupmarketing]

these are pretty lame responses to be honest.

I've seen several threads where this has been blown off as a user error - most def isn't!

Reality is. Copying from excel to InDesign used to paste into text areas as Tabs and Paragraph Breaks, now it pastes only with paragraph breaks.

nothing may have changed in the way tables work, but indesign (or OSX?) has certainly changed how it pastes copied (command + C) data from excel spreadsheets. bit of a hassle when you don't want to "place" a whole excel doc, just a few cells, and then have to spend a bunch of time formatting it again in indesign.

[Sandi S.]

So I am trying to do the exact same thing. Very experienced InDesign user here. I'm copying and pasting a very large excel document into a table and even the hard returns (and tabs) are not formatting into proper rows in the table! I have to go in one by one!

[Steve Werner]

Check your settings in Clipboard Handling Preferences > When Pasting Text and Tables from Other Applications: there are two choices

* All information (Index Markers, Swatches, Styles, etc.)

* Text only

[Lukas4]

Dear Steve, this two choices nothing solves when you want to update old table e.x. pricelist, tech specs etc.

I have the same problem. Copy table from excel and than paste it to InDD - it pastes all data in the same column. But, when copy table from excel to word, and than to InDD - it works. But, this way with word is very harsh and timewasting.

Same problem when I use local Numbers, it paste in one same column.

[weird-fishes]

i swtiched to text only and it fixed my issue

[nice_serendipity8709]

Oh my goodness. thank you so much. such a simple fix. worked perfectly

[Carolyn25358133isnt]

Hi. What menu did you use to switch to text only? In Excel or in InDesign?

[Laubender]

Hi Lukas,

I came accross something similar weeks ago on an updated Mac OS X system.

Usually I could select some tab delimited text with InDesign, copy it to the clipboard, select one cell in Excel and paste all the contents in so that every tab delimited contents landed in its own cell. Not so with a recent version of Excel. I had to convert the text to a table in InDesign, select all cells in the table, copy to the clipboard, select one single cell in Excel and paste it.

I still can copy tab delimited text from InDesign to Excel on Windows 10 and every delimited contents is transferred to its own cell.

Maybe something changed with OS X or with the latest version of Excel on Mac OS X ?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Lukas4]

Hi Uwe,

OK, I understand your case. You describe way from InDD to Excel.

But I have problem with opposite way - from Excel (or Numbers) to InDD. steffenm32535037 in first post it described - table with more collumn is pasting to InDD to one column.

[Laubender]

Hi Lukas,

yes, but I wonder if my issue and your issue shares the same reason.

Did you try the following:

Just select only one cell in your InDesign table before pasting.

On Windows 10 this is still working; just tested that.

I suspect a Mac OS X issue.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Lukas4]

Dear,

I solved problem. Problem was in Citrix Workspace and in version of Office. I have had version 2010. After upgrade to 2016 version is problem solved.

I think, that very big problem is in constantly new updations with Adobe CC, updations with MacOS etc.

Thanks

[Laubender]

Hi Lukas,

thank you for sharing your experience.

So now you are working with Office 2016.

What's your exact OS X version?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Lukas4]

MacOS Catalina 10.15.1

[Lukas4]

Hey guys, my problem with copy/paste is back. It function about one week. No update system MAC, no update citrix, no update adobe cc.

[tomrootstudio]

I found a quick fix for this today guys which might be useful for you. If you paste the content from Excel or Numbers into TextEdit first (or WordPad for Windows I guess) then copy it again from there and it keeps the tabs so you can paste it into your InDesign table. I only tried this with one column so can't say for sure if it works across multiple columns. Hope this helps!

[papacino]

Worked like a dream. Pasted multiple columns and rows from Numbers into TextEdit as plain text and then copied and pasted into formatted tables in InDesign. Copy pasted perfectly respecting all the styles set-up in the InDesign file.

[henriquepinheiro]

Worked beautifully here on Windows, but using the Notepad (not Wordpad).
Also, worked with multiple columns.

[Nina5F88]

Printscreen key on your keyboard.

It takes a picture of your screen and keeps it in your clipboard.

All you have to do is ctrl+v (paste) and crop it 

[Laubender]

Hi steffenm32535037,

did you mark Nina5F88's solution as the "Correct Answer" here?

I do not think, that this answer is correct at all, because a printscreen is just an image, a bunch of pixels.

And if you paste it inside from the clipboard you even cannot tell with InDesign's functionality what effective resolution is used when scaling it. ( Unless you trigger InDesign's Preflight in a special way. )

For now I will unmark this answer as the correct one.

Of course you could convince me otherwise, but one need some very good reasons using a screen shot of an Excel table instead of an InDesign table with editable table cells.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Jon@HH&C]

The solution for me, on Windows Excel 365 -> InDesign, was to change InDesign's clipboard handling to text only. After that, copying and pasting directly multiple rows and columns works as intended, preserving all preset styles in InDesign, without the need to use in intermediary application.

[Jeppe27002532ayuh]

When I copy and paste from Excel into an existing table in InDesign, it causes an extra empty row between every existing row, which is frustrating to clean up. I found that if I copy from Excel -> Word -> InDesign, then the entire table is pasted correctly in InDesign with no extra rows/spaces.

I guess InDesign doesn't correctly interpret the data and formatting from Excel, but when copied from Word, which is an actual table, InDesign has no problem pasting it correctly.