Some charts won't copy properly from Excel 2007

[Jeff in GA]

For several years I've been copying charts from Excel 2003 to paste in other
programs. In one of my Excel 2007 spreadsheet there are two charts that, when
copied, either will not paste at all, or will not paste in its entirety.
(Other charts in the same spreadsheet can be copied and pasted without
problems.)

These charts will not paste at all into Word, and they will not paste in
their entirety into CorelDraw. (However, copying and pasting them from Excel
2003 works fine.) Is anything known about this problem in Excel 2007?

 

[Jon Peltier]

Some (not all) charts and other objects created in Excel 2003 will behave
strangely when their parent workbook is opened in Excel 2007. I haven't
found a way to prevent this. What I do is recreate the objects in 2007. This
might be tedious, but it's less frustrating than trying to figure out why.

Advanced Excel Conference - June 17-18 2009 - Charting and Programming
http://peltiertech.com/Training/2009-06-ACNJ/AdvExcelConf200906ACNJ.html

- Jon

 

[Jeff in GA]

Jon, you raise a good point, but that is not the situation here.

I should have explained that these charts *were* created in Excel 2007, but
they won't paste properly into other apps. (Most of the charts will paste
properly, one never does, and one sometimes does.) Instead, I have to open
the file in Excel 2003 to copy and paste. Any ideas?

 

[Jon Peltier]

Regular copy? Try copying as a picture. On the Home tab, go to Paste > As
Picture > Copy As Picture. Cleverly hidden, eh? I didn't even know it was
there for a couple months.

- Jon

 

[Jeff in GA]

Jon, I do appreciate you pointing that out, but it does not solve this problem.

It does answer a different question I posted here, as I used that feature in
the Excel 2003 (the hiddent shift-copy as feature), so I'm glad you pointed
that out to me.

HOWEVER, I just tried it and it did not work. I am convinced this is a bug
in Excel 2007. Here's why: if I open the xls in Excel 2003, I can copy and
paste the image perfectly well (that is how I've been doing it since it
doesn't work from 2007). Again, it is not all the charts in this file, it is
only 2 of many that won't copy. What it does is paste the chart box without
any of the Y or X axis data (if I paste into Corel Draw). And it won't paste
into a Word doc file at all as a metafile! And if I paste it into CorelDraw
as an enhance metafile, it forces Corel to close. I don't have that problem
pasting the exact same chart from 2003. So, until MS fixes this, I need to
keep Excel 2003 installed on one PC in order to export the charts.

Please let me know when/if any other solutions appear.

 

[PeteC]

I too am experiencing this effect during copy and paste between Excel.
Our graphic artist found a work around that sometimes works and its weird
why it works sometimes but not others and I made him prove it to me.

we would copy as picture in Excel, then in the same Excel file would paste,
even over the top of the original copy. then he could copy that and have it
paste into CorelDraw X4 with out a problem.
but like I said, it will work sometimes but not others.

so far my solution to help him out was to return his system to Office 2003
so he could get some work done.

Have not tried running things in safe mode yet.

starting Excel with
excel.exe /s

to start it in safe mode.
or even trying to run the PC in safe mode and trying it then.

 

[Jeff in GA]

Pete C, I'll try that.

I've got many years with this "copy as" feature (for copying and pasting as
a wmf into other applicatons). The Microsoft people still do not understand
that there is a bug here (that does not occur when working in Excel 2003).