[Idaho Word Man]

I am working with about 40 forms that I created from the same template
(Office 2003 in XP Professional). I created the forms by placing the
template in my templates directory and then using File - New to create a new
file each time. These forms are based on a Word table that originally had
text form fields in each cell. Because I knew I was going to be doing a lot
of cutting and pasting, one of the first things I did on each file was
unprotect the form and delete the text fields so that the cells are empty.

Much of the information I put in one form needs to be copied to other files.
My usual method of copying is to select the cells I want to copy, use Ctrl -
C, move to the other form, select the same number of columns and rows, and
use Ctrl - V to paste. I am very careful about the end-of-row characters. If
I copy the end-of-row character from the original, I am careful to select the
end-of-row characters in the new document before pasting to it. I'm also
careful to select the same number of rows and columns each time.

My problem is that sometimes (about 75% of the time) the data pastes
properly into the new cells, and other times (25%?) it pastes as an embedded
table within each of the cells. I have tried a number of combinations to try
to get clean results, but once I've had a bad result in a document, nothing
will consistently allow me to paste multiple cells properly. Occasionally,
using Paste Special - Unformatted Text will get a good result, but this
doesn't always work. The only "solution" at that point is to paste each cell
one at a time. Since I often have a dozen or so cells to paste, doing them
one at a time slows me down a lot.

I've tried many times going back to the original and re-copying, but once it
has failed one time between any two documents, it fails almost every time
thereafter.

One thing that might be affecting this is the layout of the section I'm
working in. I have twenty rows of seven columns, but in the first column, all
20 cells have been joined into a tall narrow column that serves as a header
column for the 20 rows. But I don't ever select anything from the first
column. Another thing that might be causing my problem is that the original
template has been revised 24 times so far, and this section has not always
had 20 rows in it. Some of the rows in this 20-row section have been added at
different times.

Can any of you Word Wizards give me any clues that might allow me to cut and
paste freely between these forms? It's something my department does more than
a thousand times a year, and we would greatly appreciate anything that would
help us work more efficiently.

Thanks,

Fred