How do I force pasted text to use the margins of my document?

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Guest

I have a document that I always have to paste contents from another document.
The problem is, when I paste the margins are automaticaly moved in to the
right. I have even tried giving my document the same margins as the source
document. The result is the same; the margins are still altered. Can anyone
please help me figure this out?

Thanks,
Jim
 
One possibility is that the "paragraph margins", that is, the indent
settings, of the pasted text make it run into the margin. Select the
problem text. On the Format menu, click Paragraph. Click the Indents and
Spacing tab. Under "Indentation", make sure that the settings for "Left"
and "Right" are both set to zero and that the setting for "Special" is
"(none)". Click OK.

Another possibility is that the pasted text includes table formatting; a
table column can extend into the margin. Use Table>Convert>Table to Text
to get rid of the table.

However, the easiest fix is probably to copy the text as usual but then
choose Paste Special on the Edit menu, and choose to paste as
"Unformatted text". This ensures that the pasted text take on the
formatting of the target document.

If you are using a recent version you have even more options. See
the following article:

How Paste Options works in Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/HowPasteOptionsWorks.html



--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
news:[email protected]...
 
Stefan has dealt with many of the possible issues. If the issue is that text
pasted from the Web doesn't expand to fill the margins, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Hi Stefan,

Unfortunately, I need to keep the formating intact. I just don't want the
pasted text to be tabbed over. I checked the paragraph settings of the
source text and everything was set to zero for the Left and right margins.
Is there anything else I can try? Thanks to Suzanne, as well for replying to
my post.
 
Presumably you have verified that the text is left- and not right-aligned?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
I think Suzanne covered what I missed in my first reply...

Just one more thought here:

It the target document has a properly formatted paragraph style, it
shouldn't matter that you paste as unformatted text; you will get the
correct formatting anyway.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
 
If you enable the display of nonprinting marks (click the ¶ button on
the Standard toolbar), what characters are in the text? Do you see any
arrows pointing to the right? These are tab characters (I don't think
we've discussed them in previous messages). Perhaps deleting them would
help the situation.

If nothing else works, you could paste as a picture (using Paste
Special), which would certainly preserve the source formatting, but the
text won't be editable of course.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
 
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