Paste Picture from Scrapbook, Office 2004 for Mac

[Erik]

I need to be able to paste complex figures I've created over the years
in Excel (charts showing data, plus custom legends and labels I
cobbled together) into Word documents, on a Mac. In v.X, the
following procedure worked fine: Mark an area, then Shift-Command-C,
then "As appears on screen", then Paste into the destination
document. I just moved to Office 2004 for Mac, and have figured out
that I now need to go through the Scrapbook. Fine. I now Mark an
area, Add the marked area to the Scrapbook, then Paste as Picture from
the Scrapbook into Word (or Powerpoint, or elsewhere in Excel; same
problem arises). The problem: with certain figures, generally those
that include two embedded charts side by side, a substantial region of
the picture comes out white, as if a white square had been overlaid on
it. Oddly, the blanked-out region seems to be limited to the right-
hand chart; other embedded objects on the right (my custom axis
labels, made of text boxes) so show up.

Example at http://www.msu.edu/~ema/scbug.xls. Open the document, open
the Scrapbook (if it isn't already), Add the marked area to the
Scrapbook, then Paste as Picture, say into that same Excel sheet,
below the marked region. The result will be like what is on the
Finish page of the spreadsheet.

I found a couple of instances of what looked like similar problems a
couple of years ago on these forums, but in one case it looked like a
page-size issue (which this doesn't seem to be), and in another case
there seemed to be no resolution.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Erik.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Erik,

I tried to reproduce the problem on my Intel iMac, but was not successful.
Every copy I made was good. I did not see any unexpected white areas.

So let's be sure we're on the same page. Do you have the same version
installed that I do? I have all the updates. When I check the version of
Excel using the menu Excel > About Excel it says I am using version 11.3.6
(070618). If yours says something different then use the Help menu and check
for updates. If yours is the same, then maybe it's hardware related. What
computer and display do you have?

The functionality of Shift-Command-C was changed to use the clipboard. But
you can change keyboard shortcuts. Check the Excel help topic titled
Customize shortcut key assignments. Using the menus Shift-Edit-Copy Picture
is still available in Excel 2004, which is what you wanted with
Shift-Command-C.

-Jim

I need to be able to paste complex figures I've created over the years
in Excel (charts showing data, plus custom legends and labels I
cobbled together) into Word documents, on a Mac. In v.X, the
following procedure worked fine: Mark an area, then Shift-Command-C,
then "As appears on screen", then Paste into the destination
document. I just moved to Office 2004 for Mac, and have figured out
that I now need to go through the Scrapbook. Fine. I now Mark an
area, Add the marked area to the Scrapbook, then Paste as Picture from
the Scrapbook into Word (or Powerpoint, or elsewhere in Excel; same
problem arises). The problem: with certain figures, generally those
that include two embedded charts side by side, a substantial region of
the picture comes out white, as if a white square had been overlaid on
it. Oddly, the blanked-out region seems to be limited to the right-
hand chart; other embedded objects on the right (my custom axis
labels, made of text boxes) so show up.

Example at http://www.msu.edu/~ema/scbug.xls. Open the document, open
the Scrapbook (if it isn't already), Add the marked area to the
Scrapbook, then Paste as Picture, say into that same Excel sheet,
below the marked region. The result will be like what is on the
Finish page of the spreadsheet.

I found a couple of instances of what looked like similar problems a
couple of years ago on these forums, but in one case it looked like a
page-size issue (which this doesn't seem to be), and in another case
there seemed to be no resolution.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Erik.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[Erik]

Hi Erik,

I tried to reproduce the problem on my Intel iMac, but was not successful.
Every copy I made was good. I did not see any unexpected white areas.

Was this using the scbug.xls file that I posted the link to? It
occurred to me that the problem might be related to this being a file
created in v.X ... but then I was just able to reproduce the problem
in file created by Excel 2004.

So let's be sure we're on the same page. Do you have the same version
installed that I do? I have all the updates. When I check the version of
Excel using the menu Excel > About Excel it says I am using version 11.3.6
(070618). If yours says something different then use the Help menu and check
for updates. If yours is the same, then maybe it's hardware related. What
computer and display do you have?

I did make sure I was updated, and am at 11.3.7.

I'm on an Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, 17" high-resolution screen (a
couple of weeks old).

A workaround seems to be to print the marked region to a PDF, open
that in Adobe, export to TIF, and paste that. Not so elegant, but may
suggest that the problem is not hardware.

Office v.X is still installed, since I migrated my account and
applications from the G4 tower I was leaving. Any stories of v.X and
2004 conflicting with each other?

In any case, many thanks for having a look.

Erik.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Erik,

As soon as I turned on my computer this morning I was prompted to install
the 11.3.7 update, so I did.

Then I tried the same thing again, but to no avail. I still don't reproduce
the problem. Our hardware is very similar, so it's probably not that,
although it's not identical so we can't completely rule hardware out.

Are you running any "haxie" programs (things that enhance how MacOS
behaves)? Are you running any anti-virus software? If yes, please try
turning them off temporarily to see if the problem goes away.

I'm grasping at straws here, so I hope someone else jumps in on this thread
and finds a way to reproduce the problem.

-Jim

Was this using the scbug.xls file that I posted the link to? It
occurred to me that the problem might be related to this being a file
created in v.X ... but then I was just able to reproduce the problem
in file created by Excel 2004.


I did make sure I was updated, and am at 11.3.7.

I'm on an Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, 17" high-resolution screen (a
couple of weeks old).

A workaround seems to be to print the marked region to a PDF, open
that in Adobe, export to TIF, and paste that. Not so elegant, but may
suggest that the problem is not hardware.

Office v.X is still installed, since I migrated my account and
applications from the G4 tower I was leaving. Any stories of v.X and
2004 conflicting with each other?

In any case, many thanks for having a look.

Erik.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[CyberTaz]

Well Jim, here ya go

PM G5, Dual 2 GHz, 1.5 MB
OS X 10.4.10
Office 11.3.7

Same problem as reported by the OP. No matter what I do the right chart
doesn't appear in the Word image. I've tried just about every combination I
can think of involving:

Use of the Select Objects tool from Drawing toolbar
Grouping
Arranging
Eliminating overlap of elements
Standard Copy command (as opposed to Copy Picture)
Paste Special options in Word

Although straight Copy/Paste *does* bring everything over, the charts look
fine but the text boxes are all improperly sized & some lack a portion of
the content. All this despite the fact that all looks good on the clipboard.

The only thing I've found as a workaround (other than using Grab to take a
screen shot) is to save the selected content as a Picture, then insert the
PNG into the doc. Initially appears to lose some sharpness but that improves
once the image is scaled down.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi again,

So you and Erik have something in common that is different from me and is
causing the bad behavior.

What could it be? I've got ATI Radeon X1600 graphics. 2 Gig Ram, but your
1.5 gig should be plenty. I have no idea....

-Jim

Well Jim, here ya go

PM G5, Dual 2 GHz, 1.5 MB
OS X 10.4.10
Office 11.3.7

Same problem as reported by the OP. No matter what I do the right chart
doesn't appear in the Word image. I've tried just about every combination I
can think of involving:

Use of the Select Objects tool from Drawing toolbar
Grouping
Arranging
Eliminating overlap of elements
Standard Copy command (as opposed to Copy Picture)
Paste Special options in Word

Although straight Copy/Paste *does* bring everything over, the charts look
fine but the text boxes are all improperly sized & some lack a portion of
the content. All this despite the fact that all looks good on the clipboard.

The only thing I've found as a workaround (other than using Grab to take a
screen shot) is to save the selected content as a Picture, then insert the
PNG into the doc. Initially appears to lose some sharpness but that improves
once the image is scaled down.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[CyberTaz]

Video is stock - nVIDIA GeForce FX 5200, 64MB


It seems like I've seen reference to comparable behavior but I don't recall
any determination as to cause or cure

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Hi again,

So you and Erik have something in common that is different from me and is
causing the bad behavior.

What could it be? I've got ATI Radeon X1600 graphics. 2 Gig Ram, but your
1.5 gig should be plenty. I have no idea....

-Jim

Well Jim, here ya go

PM G5, Dual 2 GHz, 1.5 MB
OS X 10.4.10
Office 11.3.7

Same problem as reported by the OP. No matter what I do the right chart
doesn't appear in the Word image. I've tried just about every combination I
can think of involving:

Use of the Select Objects tool from Drawing toolbar
Grouping
Arranging
Eliminating overlap of elements
Standard Copy command (as opposed to Copy Picture)
Paste Special options in Word

Although straight Copy/Paste *does* bring everything over, the charts look
fine but the text boxes are all improperly sized & some lack a portion of
the content. All this despite the fact that all looks good on the clipboard.

The only thing I've found as a workaround (other than using Grab to take a
screen shot) is to save the selected content as a Picture, then insert the
PNG into the doc. Initially appears to lose some sharpness but that improves
once the image is scaled down.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Hi Erik,

As soon as I turned on my computer this morning I was prompted to install
the 11.3.7 update, so I did.

Then I tried the same thing again, but to no avail. I still don't reproduce
the problem. Our hardware is very similar, so it's probably not that,
although it's not identical so we can't completely rule hardware out.

Are you running any "haxie" programs (things that enhance how MacOS
behaves)? Are you running any anti-virus software? If yes, please try
turning them off temporarily to see if the problem goes away.

I'm grasping at straws here, so I hope someone else jumps in on this thread
and finds a way to reproduce the problem.

-Jim

Quoting from "Erik" <[email protected]>, in article
(e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

On Aug 18, 12:44 pm, Jim Gordon MVP <[email protected]>
wrote:
Hi Erik,

I tried to reproduce the problem on my Intel iMac, but was not successful.
Every copy I made was good. I did not see any unexpected white areas.

Was this using the scbug.xls file that I posted the link to? It
occurred to me that the problem might be related to this being a file
created in v.X ... but then I was just able to reproduce the problem
in file created by Excel 2004.

So let's be sure we're on the same page. Do you have the same version
installed that I do? I have all the updates. When I check the version of
Excel using the menu Excel > About Excel it says I am using version 11.3.6
(070618). If yours says something different then use the Help menu and
check
for updates. If yours is the same, then maybe it's hardware related. What
computer and display do you have?

I did make sure I was updated, and am at 11.3.7.

I'm on an Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, 17" high-resolution screen (a
couple of weeks old).

A workaround seems to be to print the marked region to a PDF, open
that in Adobe, export to TIF, and paste that. Not so elegant, but may
suggest that the problem is not hardware.

Office v.X is still installed, since I migrated my account and
applications from the G4 tower I was leaving. Any stories of v.X and
2004 conflicting with each other?

In any case, many thanks for having a look.

Erik.