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#1
Posted to microsoft.public.word.tables
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Automated way to merge and remove hard returns in a column
I have created a table from a report. One column has many words, which wrap
into several rows during 'convert text to table,' while all the other columns could fit on one row, as shown in Fig. A. I would like to end up like Fig. B, but It's a real PITA to do the merges and return-removals manually. Anyone got a solution? I'm happy to massage the data externally if necessary. |COLUMN1 |COLUMN2 |COLUMN3 | |----------|------------|----------| |Few Words |Many many wo|Few Words | |----------|------------|----------| | |rds are in t| | |----------|------------|----------| Fig. A | |his column, | | |----------|------------|----------| | |and they hav| | |----------|------------|----------| | |e hard retur| | |----------|------------|----------| | |ns embedded | | |----------|------------|----------| | |for every ro| | |----------|------------|----------| | |w. | | |----------|------------|----------| ================================================== === |COLUMN1 |COLUMN2 |COLUMN3 | |----------|------------|----------| |Few Words |Many many wo|Few Words | | |rds are in t| | Fig. B | |his column, | | | |and they hav| | | |e hard retur| | | |ns embedded | | | |for every ro| | | |w. | | |----------|------------|----------| Thanks, Ed |
#2
Posted to microsoft.public.word.tables
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Automated way to merge and remove hard returns in a column
Although there may be other ways to do this, I'd still do it the way you
have been. That is, convert the text to a table, then select all the rows in Column B that belong together and merge them. Merge the corresponding rows in A and C as well. Then use Find and Replace (see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm) to remove the paragraph breaks. Even using column-select, I can't see any more efficient way to handle it. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Ed Sheehan" wrote in message ... I have created a table from a report. One column has many words, which wrap into several rows during 'convert text to table,' while all the other columns could fit on one row, as shown in Fig. A. I would like to end up like Fig. B, but It's a real PITA to do the merges and return-removals manually. Anyone got a solution? I'm happy to massage the data externally if necessary. |COLUMN1 |COLUMN2 |COLUMN3 | |----------|------------|----------| |Few Words |Many many wo|Few Words | |----------|------------|----------| | |rds are in t| | |----------|------------|----------| Fig. A | |his column, | | |----------|------------|----------| | |and they hav| | |----------|------------|----------| | |e hard retur| | |----------|------------|----------| | |ns embedded | | |----------|------------|----------| | |for every ro| | |----------|------------|----------| | |w. | | |----------|------------|----------| ================================================== === |COLUMN1 |COLUMN2 |COLUMN3 | |----------|------------|----------| |Few Words |Many many wo|Few Words | | |rds are in t| | Fig. B | |his column, | | | |and they hav| | | |e hard retur| | | |ns embedded | | | |for every ro| | | |w. | | |----------|------------|----------| Thanks, Ed |
#3
Posted to microsoft.public.word.tables
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Automated way to merge and remove hard returns in a column
Thanks, Suzanne. I was homing in on that as as solution as well, but there
was just too much work to it. So rather than use the built-in report generator to produce the report, I wrote a program to print the data to the screen in tab-delimited format with no column wrapping, then captured it. I thought it might be safer to import to Excel first, because it's supposed to handle columns/rows better (at least it has a better text-to-columns filter).The w-i-d-e column went beyond 255 characters, and Excel filled those cells with # characters. That was not a pleasant suprise. So, in desperation I went directly into Word, thinking it would choke even worse, and viola! It came in without a hitch. Text-to-tables formatted the thing just as I had hoped. And it couldn't care less how much text was in a cell! Who knew? :-) The lesson here is: If you want columns to auto-wrap, don't bring 'em in with hard returns. And if you want one row per logical imported row, don't bring 'em in with hard returns. This means one has to ensure that each imported row has columns as wide as necessary to hold the data - not always an easy thing to accomplish. I still think it shouldn't be too hard to create some kind of filter to parse columns/rows to see where to wrap/break them. Thanks again, Ed "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message ... Although there may be other ways to do this, I'd still do it the way you have been. That is, convert the text to a table, then select all the rows in Column B that belong together and merge them. Merge the corresponding rows in A and C as well. Then use Find and Replace (see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm) to remove the paragraph breaks. Even using column-select, I can't see any more efficient way to handle it. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Ed Sheehan" wrote in message ... I have created a table from a report. One column has many words, which wrap into several rows during 'convert text to table,' while all the other columns could fit on one row, as shown in Fig. A. I would like to end up like Fig. B, but It's a real PITA to do the merges and return-removals manually. Anyone got a solution? I'm happy to massage the data externally if necessary. |COLUMN1 |COLUMN2 |COLUMN3 | |----------|------------|----------| |Few Words |Many many wo|Few Words | |----------|------------|----------| | |rds are in t| | |----------|------------|----------| Fig. A | |his column, | | |----------|------------|----------| | |and they hav| | |----------|------------|----------| | |e hard retur| | |----------|------------|----------| | |ns embedded | | |----------|------------|----------| | |for every ro| | |----------|------------|----------| | |w. | | |----------|------------|----------| ================================================== === |COLUMN1 |COLUMN2 |COLUMN3 | |----------|------------|----------| |Few Words |Many many wo|Few Words | | |rds are in t| | Fig. B | |his column, | | | |and they hav| | | |e hard retur| | | |ns embedded | | | |for every ro| | | |w. | | |----------|------------|----------| Thanks, Ed |
#4
Posted to microsoft.public.word.tables
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Automated way to merge and remove hard returns in a column
Interesting. I obviously misinterpreted the initial problem, though.
-- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Ed Sheehan" wrote in message ... Thanks, Suzanne. I was homing in on that as as solution as well, but there was just too much work to it. So rather than use the built-in report generator to produce the report, I wrote a program to print the data to the screen in tab-delimited format with no column wrapping, then captured it. I thought it might be safer to import to Excel first, because it's supposed to handle columns/rows better (at least it has a better text-to-columns filter).The w-i-d-e column went beyond 255 characters, and Excel filled those cells with # characters. That was not a pleasant suprise. So, in desperation I went directly into Word, thinking it would choke even worse, and viola! It came in without a hitch. Text-to-tables formatted the thing just as I had hoped. And it couldn't care less how much text was in a cell! Who knew? :-) The lesson here is: If you want columns to auto-wrap, don't bring 'em in with hard returns. And if you want one row per logical imported row, don't bring 'em in with hard returns. This means one has to ensure that each imported row has columns as wide as necessary to hold the data - not always an easy thing to accomplish. I still think it shouldn't be too hard to create some kind of filter to parse columns/rows to see where to wrap/break them. Thanks again, Ed "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message ... Although there may be other ways to do this, I'd still do it the way you have been. That is, convert the text to a table, then select all the rows in Column B that belong together and merge them. Merge the corresponding rows in A and C as well. Then use Find and Replace (see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm) to remove the paragraph breaks. Even using column-select, I can't see any more efficient way to handle it. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Ed Sheehan" wrote in message ... I have created a table from a report. One column has many words, which wrap into several rows during 'convert text to table,' while all the other columns could fit on one row, as shown in Fig. A. I would like to end up like Fig. B, but It's a real PITA to do the merges and return-removals manually. Anyone got a solution? I'm happy to massage the data externally if necessary. |COLUMN1 |COLUMN2 |COLUMN3 | |----------|------------|----------| |Few Words |Many many wo|Few Words | |----------|------------|----------| | |rds are in t| | |----------|------------|----------| Fig. A | |his column, | | |----------|------------|----------| | |and they hav| | |----------|------------|----------| | |e hard retur| | |----------|------------|----------| | |ns embedded | | |----------|------------|----------| | |for every ro| | |----------|------------|----------| | |w. | | |----------|------------|----------| ================================================== === |COLUMN1 |COLUMN2 |COLUMN3 | |----------|------------|----------| |Few Words |Many many wo|Few Words | | |rds are in t| | Fig. B | |his column, | | | |and they hav| | | |e hard retur| | | |ns embedded | | | |for every ro| | | |w. | | |----------|------------|----------| Thanks, Ed |
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