WD: Multicolumn Text from Word Becomes One Column in Excel

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
• Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 5.0
• Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, versions 6.0, 6.0.1
• Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, version 5.0a
• Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

When you copy multicolumn text from Word and paste it into Microsoft Excel, the text appears in one column in Microsoft Excel.

If you click Paste Special to paste the text in Microsoft Excel, the text still appears in one column, no matter which format type you select.

CAUSE

Columns are controlled by section-level formatting. If the last paragraph mark in the document or if the section break following the columns is not copied with the rest of the selection, the section formatting, and thus the column formatting, is lost.

RESOLUTION

NOTE: The methods below let you move the information in two columns to Microsoft Excel, where the information will appear the way it does in Word. However, none of the methods below actually places information in a second cell.

Method 1 (All versions of Word except for Word 97 for Windows)

If the document has no other text that you want to copy to Microsoft Excel, follow these steps:

1. On the Edit menu, click Select All to select the entire document (including column formatting information).

2. On the Edit menu, click Copy.

3. Switch to Microsoft Excel and click Paste Special on the Edit menu.

4. Choose either Microsoft Word Document Object or Picture. Click OK.

Method 2

Convert the columns to a picture, and paste the picture into Microsoft Excel:

1. Highlight the multicolumn text.

2. Click the Copy button.

3. Click the New Document button.

4. In the new document, click Paste Special on the Edit menu.

5. Click Picture. Click OK.

6. Select the picture, then click the Copy button.

7. Switch to Microsoft Excel. On the Edit menu, click Paste Special.

8. Click Picture. Click OK.