[RESOLVED] excel 2007 paste (special, values, etc.) not available?

[shiva_42]

I'm copying text from a web page (html) to a 'text' cell in excel 2007. When I do this, the "Paste" options are mostly greyed out... i.e. 'values' although shown on the "Paste-Options" menu, is grey and not available. This SEEMS to only happen when copying the original phrase from a web page. If I copy from another cell on the spreadsheet, a .txt document, etc., this option is enabled and working as I expect.

I've already built a macro to get around the extra button clicks necessary to achieve the expected results, (the PASTE-SPECIAL-TEXT combination DOES work), so I don't need a shortcut. What I DO need is to simply understand why these options are unavailable under the specific circumstances. What am I overlooking or misunderstanding?

BTW: the reason this is an issue to begin with is that if my user just chooses "PASTE" instead of "PASTE-SPECIAL-TEXT", the font changes to Arial 8, instead of preserving the expected (and pre-formatted) cell formatting which specifies Calibri 11 font. If there is a better approach to my confusion, I'm open to suggestions. I'm assuming that the HTML tags are changing the default cell format during a regular "PASTE", where "PASTE-SPECIAL-TEXT" preserves the configuration. But, I'm not sure I'm barking up the right tree...

[Train]

Does click in the block, then Ctrl-V paste into the block. Had that work at times.

[shiva_42]

if I'm understanding your response correctly, no; this doesn't work, it is the same as choosing "PASTE" and behaves as outlined originally. I'm still pretty confused about this.

[SpywareDr]

The problem may lie with what you're trying to copy and paste.

I just tried it here in Excel 2007 (Office Ultimate); font currently set as Calibri 11. Back here on this page, I highlighted and copied the first sentence from your first post above. Back over in Excel, I right-clicked cell A1, selected "Paste-Special...", (with no problem), selected "Text" and clicked OK. As you would expect, the sentence is now in Excel's cell A1 using Calibri 11.

If you can post a link to the page and describe what you're trying to copy and paste, I'll give it a try here.

[shiva_42]

Hi Doc, thanks for the response... I can replicate the "success" you describe exactly as you discovered... my confusion is over 2 inter-related issues:

1) If I just "PASTE" instead of "Paste-Special, etc...", it changes the font characteristics.
2) MOST of the options that I believe SHOULD be available on the pull-down "PASTE" menu, i.e. 'VALUES', etc., are greyed out when the source data is from ANY .html document as opposed to a pre-existing Excel slot, OR plain text.

So, I'm glad you've confirmed my findings, but I'm still in the dark about the discrepancies. I can replicate these "failures" from ANY html source.

[SpywareDr]

Hi Doc, thanks for the response...

No problem.

I can replicate the "success" you describe exactly as you discovered... my confusion is over 2 inter-related issues:

1) If I just "PASTE" instead of "Paste-Special, etc...", it changes the font characteristics.

Yes, of course. To avoid that you could: 1) Use Paste-Special > Text (which strips the formatting), or 2) Paste it into Notepad first and then re-copy it from there, which would also strip the formatting.

2) MOST of the options that I believe SHOULD be available on the pull-down "PASTE" menu, i.e. 'VALUES', etc., are greyed out when the source data is from ANY .html document as opposed to a pre-existing Excel slot, OR plain text.

So, I'm glad you've confirmed my findings, but I'm still in the dark about the discrepancies. I can replicate these "failures" from ANY html source.

When you "right-click>Paste" the hidden formatting is also copied. When you "right-click>Paste-Special>Text" the hidden formatting is stripped out.

[shiva_42]

good info so far... any ideas or comments about why so many of the "Paste" options are unavailable when the source data is from .html???

[SpywareDr]

Because Excel wasn't really intended to be a HTML editor?

[shiva_42]

well... there IS that!

[SpywareDr]