Forum Discussion
Copying table into docx makes page numbering go haywire
Hello,
So, context: I'm working on a doctoral thesis. I have a table, which was originally created in LaTeX, which I originally copied into my thesis as an image. The thesis office wasn't happy with it being an image, they wanted it as a text-form Word table. Long story short, through great and valiant effort, my advisor and I got it converted to a text-form Word table.
Basically the last thing I have to do to get my thesis cleared is get this damned table pasted into my thesis. But when I attempted to do so, behold - it completely screwed up the page numbering of my entire thesis. It changed everything so that the following page became page 1, and the preceding pages no longer had page numbers.
The table itself was a standalone file in the other docx - and I tried explicitly turning off all headers, footers, and page numbers in that file, to no avail when re-pasting.
I accosted an agent on Microsoft support chat, who resolved the issue, and I should have just stopped him right there, but he kept messing with my document and messed up his own fix. He ultimately gave up and sent me here.
I was really hoping to include file attachments to demonstrate the issue but this interface doesn't appear to allow it. If anyone could offer me a workaround for that, I would appreciate that as well. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer.
Cheers,
Matthew Lockner
1 Reply
It sounds like you also snagged a section break. And it sounds like this must be a big table. I suggest using Excel as an intermediate step. You won't be bringing any Word formatting along for the ride.
In your table file, turn on hidden characters (the paragraph mark) - easier if you just hold CTRL+SHFT+8 (basically, CTRL+*). Now, click anywhere in the table. You'll see a small square icon in the upper left corner. Click on it to select only the table. CTRL+C to copy the table.
In a blank worksheet in Excel, right click in cell A:1. In the Paste options, choose the 2nd one - Use destination formatting. Now select the cells containing your table and CTRL+C to copy.
Now your thesis doc... make a couple of copies before you proceed. Then, do the CTRL+SHFT+8 again to see the hidden characters. Move the cursor where you want to insert the table. Right click and choose Use destination formatting again. It won't be pretty but it will be easy enough to make it look good.
You might check your page numbering before you spend time jazzing it up...
Click anywhere in that blah table and click the square icon appearing above the upper left corner (this selects the entire table. Now go to the Table Design ribbon and choose something classy for your thesis. Notice styling headings, banded rows, etc. are to the left.
If it's still wonky, reach out to me in Linked In, Matthew. I'm in the process of revising 30+ SOPs and would love a distraction.
