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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > Office 2016 for Mac - Copy & Paste

Office 2016 for Mac - Copy & Paste
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shuntva
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Jul 18, 2015, 09:20 AM
 
I ran into the strangest "copy and paste" error ... trying to copy data from Excel 2016 to PowerPoint 2016 or Word 2016

I copied several columns and several rows of text from a spreadsheet into a PowerPoint slide. Several cells of data were blanked arbitrarily when pasted to PP or Word.

The blanked cells were extended so the text did NOT run over into another cell ... word wrap was not an issue ... and there were no special characters involved. VERY odd.

Naturally there is no way to actually report errors or bugs to Microsoft ... unless you are a registered developer.

If anyone is a developer and wants to take this on ... I will be happy to send the sample data so MS can fix the bug that causes this.
     
ghporter
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Jul 18, 2015, 10:45 AM
 
One thing I've seen in copy/past actions using MS Office is that sometimes text attributes (color, style, etc.) get shifted when the paste is done. Are your "blank" cells actually empty, and not just "invisible" or with the text color the same as the background color? What happens when you highlight them?

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
shuntva  (op)
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Jul 18, 2015, 11:10 AM
 
That is a great point ...

I went back and checked --
The original fields in Excel are text and all black, default font
After paste the values are really missing

Here is the link to a side-by-side image in my Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c2t92es8cg...Paste.png?dl=0

I originally thought the problem was the "MDA/ALS" being interpreted as a formula ... but "Hospital for Special Care" which follows doesn't have that issue and it has disappeared too.
     
ghporter
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Jul 18, 2015, 01:59 PM
 
...and you're sure the values are actually being copied from Excel, right? That's a stumper!

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
shuntva  (op)
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Jul 18, 2015, 03:39 PM
 
I selected the whole range - copied the whole array then went to PPT and pasted

I agree it is a goofy issue -- possibly based on some arbitrary size limit or other hidden factor that makes no sense

May also be just a feature of the "what you get is what we give you" module
     
ghporter
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Jul 18, 2015, 04:09 PM
 
Try this: select one cell at a time and see if they paste for you. There's a LOT of data "behind the scenes" in Excel, and there might be an issue with how much memory is tied up in these pastes. As you say, it might be some arbitrary limit - which is, of course, NOT published.

I don't think MS is smart enough to be as evil as having a "what you get is what we give you" module. I think they're too geeky to have thought of doing what a lot of users want to do with their software.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
shuntva  (op)
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Jul 18, 2015, 06:19 PM
 
I will try when I get to the computer ... If the other fields below this were missing I would think there must be an overall limit .... But since the "holes" of what is or is not pasted it seems there must be something related to the individual cells which I will explore further

Still believe this is a bug or should at least be a warning message
     
ghporter
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Jul 18, 2015, 06:49 PM
 
Oh, it's a bug. Anything that's a hard limit on an otherwise important function, but is not clearly states as a limit is a bug. And if it's not a hard limit (which finding out if there's something special about those blank cells will help identify), then it's even more of a bug.

But I'm interested in knowing what's happening to your data. If those cells have formulas, depend on data on other sheets, or are otherwise not simple values, that's an Important Thing To Know.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
shuntva  (op)
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Jul 19, 2015, 09:28 AM
 
Glenn

I found the culprit ....

If you happen to have a trailing space after the rest of the text field ... the entire value of the cell disappears when it is cut and pasted into Word or PowerPoint.

Clearly this is a bug that should be fixed ... can you get this to the powers that be in MS?
     
shuntva  (op)
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Jul 19, 2015, 09:29 AM
 
Thanks your your great questions and trouble shooting prowess. There is invariably an answer ... just obscure most of the time.
     
ghporter
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Jul 20, 2015, 10:02 AM
 
A trailing space? That's a pretty trivial thing, and something that basic error-checking practices should be able to catch. However, it seems that Microsoft likes to mark/select trailing spaces most of the time - it's a PITA when you're trying to ONLY copy specific data. Perhaps the behavior isn't so much "boy we messed up," but more a predictable, if negative, result of MS user paradigms.

Can you paste the value into something else, like a Text Edit document? I'm curious if it's a "copy" issue or a "paste" issue, or maybe a "paste into Microsoft programs" issue...

As for reporting the bug, if this is Office 2016 Preview, there's supposed to be a built in mechanism for reporting feedback, including bugs. I think it's in the upper right corner of the app's screen - some screen shots show a "help improve office" button, but others don't... I hope that helps.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
shuntva  (op)
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Jul 29, 2015, 03:54 PM
 
After checking again ... it appears to be caused by an invisible special character rather than nab ordinary space.

Will keep poking to make sure I have my facts correct before submitting.
     
ghporter
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Jul 29, 2015, 04:59 PM
 
Those "invisible" spaces are such a pain (in all MS Office apps), that I routinely left the "reveal invisibles" option on. You may be running into a "nonbreaking space," or a simple paragraph mark or linespace. Or it could be something truly odd... I'm interested in seeing what sorts of characters do this for you.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
shuntva  (op)
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Jul 31, 2015, 08:57 AM
 
Perhaps you have some better ideas on how to find out which invisible characters are causing the cell values to completely disappear.

Unless I am missing it:
I can't find any way in Excel to "reveal invisibles" ..
Trying Find using =char(nnn) does not bring up any results ... (even for printable characters) ... so there is a bug there too ...
Copy and paste to Word doesn't show anything very helpful ...
     
   
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