Odd Word behavior with Safari

[Russ Bankson]

When I use the copy command to copy some text from a web page opened in
Safari (2.0.4) and paste into a Word 2004 (Version 11.3) document, the text
is pasted into a table. If I try to change the table in any way Word
freezes.

I tried the same operation using Firefox (2.0.0.2) and it pastes the text
but not in a table.

This only happens with some web pages

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I have no clue, but I paste most everything from the web as unformatted,
which should bypass the problem entirely.

You can use Edit | Paste Special | Unformatted Text.

Or, in Word 2004 only, you can get a little clipboard to show up right
after a paste that lets you select Unformatted or Match Destination
Style after the fact.

Or a one-click solution here:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/PasteText.html

You would think pasting would be a simple operation, but it's not.
Every application puts different information on the clipboard. I'd be
interested in seeing a link to one of the webpages where this happens,
to make sure it isn't just your machine.

 

[Elliott Roper]

Here is sample: Open page in Safari. Try to copy the page or selected text
and paste into a Word doc See if you get table formatting. Try it in
Firfox.

http://ccim.com/education/ccim_education/course_descriptions_intro.html

If you examine the source of that page, you will see that it *is* a
table.
In fact it is tables within tables. The bulleted paragraphs have the
bullets in their own columns.

It is not unheard of.

It seems Safari has passed the table over to Word in the clipboard, and
Firefox has a more cynical idea of Word is capable of, simplifying the
page to the point of gibberising[1] it.

You pays your money. You takes your choice.

If you are simply plag^h^h^h^h quoting the text, paste unformatted
gives far quicker and more controllable results from either browser.
Write a macro to paste unformatted, then assign a keystroke to it. Tom
Lehrer would be proud of you.

1. Self referential definition ;-)

 

[Russ Bankson]

Here is sample: Open page in Safari. Try to copy the page or selected text
and paste into a Word doc See if you get table formatting. Try it in
Firfox.

http://ccim.com/education/ccim_education/course_descriptions_intro.html

Another anomaly I discovered: In copying a Wall Street Journal article pages
and pasting into Word. If I used the mouse to select text and copied and
paste to Word, it worked but if I just selected the whole page to copy and
paste, Word would freeze.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Russ:

They were trying to let you down gently

The reality is:

1) Yes. We know.

2) No, they're not going to fix it.

3) It will become more common as websites become more complicated.

4) The next version of Office will be far more capable in this regard.
Until then, I am afraid we will have to live with it.

5) If you Edit>Paste Special>Text Only... You will get the text of a web
page without the crash.

There is a work-around that may work sometimes:

1) Save your document (Word may crash, and if it does, you do not want to
lose it...)

2) Reveal the Web toolbar in Word

3) Copy the URL from your Browser's Address Bar

4) Paste it into the Address field in the Web toolbar.

Word will then make the best attempt it can to open the web page for you.
If the web page is not too complex, it does a pretty good job. If the web
page is complex, the result is pretty horrid. If the web page contains
various modern artefacts that Word can't understand, Word will hang or
crash.

Like I said, they won't fix it, so we need to work out how to live with it.

Cheers

Here is sample: Open page in Safari. Try to copy the page or selected text
and paste into a Word doc See if you get table formatting. Try it in
Firfox.

http://ccim.com/education/ccim_education/course_descriptions_intro.html

Another anomaly I discovered: In copying a Wall Street Journal article pages
and pasting into Word. If I used the mouse to select text and copied and
paste to Word, it worked but if I just selected the whole page to copy and
paste, Word would freeze.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I get a table (because the website uses tables), but my Word doesn't
freeze on editing it, even if I use Convert Table to Text. Consistent
and reproducible freezes in Word usually respond to one of the standard
troubleshooting measures, which you will find listed here:

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/TroubleshootingIndex.html

Work through them one by one until something helps. If nothing does,
post back. The most common culprit is a corrupted Normal template or
damaged Preferences file.

Contrary to John' s #3, I think this might get better in the future as
websites move away from tables.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Write a macro to paste unformatted, then assign a keystroke to it.

It's already written here (because the recorder for it is broken):

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/PasteText.html

 

[Elliott Roper]

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/PasteText.html

Nice article. Thanks.

Elliott checks pile of newly invented wheels.....
Note to self:-
....should visit the much improved Mac MVP site more often