Copying a Table from a web site into a Word table

[W. eWatson]

Is it possible to do Subject? I can select the table. However, copying
them into a MS table of the same no. rows and cols does not work. It all
goes into one cell.

It is not, as far as I know, in a known format (html?), but its columns
are lined up quite well. For example,

96 3368 Leo
97 3587 UMa
....
103 581 Cas

In some cases after say Cas, there may be a brief description. The
description is not needed though.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Instead of trying to paste it into a table, just paste it AS a table and
then do whatever is required to straighten it out and make it fit your
requirements. Online tables do often have nested cells, however, and can be
quite frustrating to work with; make sure you have table gridlines
displayed!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[W. eWatson]

Instead of trying to paste it into a table, just paste it AS a table and
then do whatever is required to straighten it out and make it fit your
requirements. Online tables do often have nested cells, however, and can
be quite frustrating to work with; make sure you have table gridlines
displayed!

Word 2007 BTW.

How do I paste AS table? I first pasted into a Notepad txt file to see
what I would get. It was nice and orderly, but certainly not in a Word
table.

I then pasted into a new Word docx, and it looks like the txt. I noticed
the little icon in the lower corner, but there was no option to make the
text into a table.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For heaven's sake don't paste into Notepad, as this will definitely convert
it to plain text and remove any tabular format. If it's a table in HTML, it
will paste into Word as a table unless you have selected the option to paste
as plain text. If the tabular format is achieved with tabs, you can use
Convert Text to Table (separating at tabs) to make it into a table. If the
text is aligned with spaces, it will be much more difficult. Display
nonprinting characters so you can see what you're dealing with.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[W. eWatson]

For heaven's sake don't paste into Notepad, as this will definitely
convert it to plain text and remove any tabular format. If it's a table
in HTML, it will paste into Word as a table unless you have selected the
option to paste as plain text. If the tabular format is achieved with
tabs, you can use Convert Text to Table (separating at tabs) to make it
into a table. If the text is aligned with spaces, it will be much more
difficult. Display nonprinting characters so you can see what you're
dealing with.

My point about putting the "table" into a txt file was to see if it
maintained columns. It did, and the table must be constructed using
spaces, but nothing else. So it really isn't formated, but just like
someone would do by using Notepad.

In any case, see
<http://astronomyonline.org/Astrophotography/MessierTable.asp>

Note the table two dozen or so lines down. I tried copy and paste the
first three lines into Word 2007, but got no table.

I think I'll just need to be satisfied with the txt format, which is OK.
I was just interested in how one might copy some web page formatted
table into a Word table. Apparently, not so easy.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you *were* dealing with spaces, you could replace the spaces with tabs
and then convert the text to a table, separating at tabs. As it happens,
however, this is not necessary. If I copy the table (which *is* a table)
from the Web page you cite and paste it into Word, it pastes as a table.
That it is an ordinary table can be seen from the fact that, if I select the
first row and make it a heading row, it does repeat on every page.

That said, the table does not observe Word's table defaults because it is
set up as an HTML-style table. It doesn't have borders, but it does have
space between cells. I wondered if it might have some nesting, but I'm not
sure it does. If you look at the table options and change the space between
cells to 0" (or just clear that check box) and the left and right cell
margins to 0.08", it will look a little more normal but still just a bit
odd.

I was able to make it look just like an ordinary Word table by converting
table to text (separating with tabs) and then back to a table (separating at
tabs).

When you paste it into Notepad, it is definitely going to lose its table
formatting because Notepad does not support tables; if you then paste it
into Word, then of course you will not have a tabular structure. If you
paste it directly from the Web page into Word, it *will be* a table and can
be handled accordingly.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[W. eWatson]

If you *were* dealing with spaces, you could replace the spaces with
tabs and then convert the text to a table, separating at tabs. As it
happens, however, this is not necessary. If I copy the table (which *is*
a table) from the Web page you cite and paste it into Word, it pastes as
a table. That it is an ordinary table can be seen from the fact that, if
I select the first row and make it a heading row, it does repeat on
every page.

That said, the table does not observe Word's table defaults because it
is set up as an HTML-style table. It doesn't have borders, but it does
have space between cells. I wondered if it might have some nesting, but
I'm not sure it does. If you look at the table options and change the
space between cells to 0" (or just clear that check box) and the left
and right cell margins to 0.08", it will look a little more normal but
still just a bit odd.

I was able to make it look just like an ordinary Word table by
converting table to text (separating with tabs) and then back to a table
(separating at tabs).

When you paste it into Notepad, it is definitely going to lose its table
formatting because Notepad does not support tables; if you then paste it
into Word, then of course you will not have a tabular structure. If you
paste it directly from the Web page into Word, it *will be* a table and
can be handled accordingly.

Good. Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Insert | Table inserts a new empty table; it doesn't insert text as a table.
If you paste your tab-delimited text into that document, select it, and use
Table | Convert | Text to Table, you should get the result you want.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org