Problems with formatting when I copy and paste pages from one Pub2010 document to another - please help!

Question

Hi there,

When I copy and past a page from one publisher document to another I lose the formating - for example the text box shrinks when you paste it.

This never used to happen in Publisher 2007.

Here is what I have tried to rectify the problem:

1.  Having the clipboard open/ showing in both documents

2.  Emptying the clipboard before each copy and paste. (not something that needed to be done in previous versions)

I would love to be able to sort this out as it takes lots of time to re-format everything! Thank you so much for your help!

Answer 1

Thanks for doing the experiments and posting back. For some reason MS changed the default settings in text boxs for Pub 2010, but now at least you can copy and paste a page in two steps.

You have figured out how to copy and paste the text boxes and keep the source formatting. Let's make that the second step.

The first step is to copy and paste everything else on the page. To do this first make sure that you have the 'Home tab' selected in the menu and that you can see the 'Group' command under the 'Arrange' group. Then instead of using Ctrl + A or 'Select all' to select everything on the page, starting at the top of your page, hold down the Ctrl key and click/select each individual design element on the page, excluding the text boxes. Once you have clicked/selected all the other elements then 'group' those elements together. You can click the 'group' icon under 'arrange' or you can use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + G.

Now you can copy and paste that group of elements onto the other page in one step. Then in step two, add the text boxes.

Granted this is not as easy as copying the entire page in one step but it will at least save you the time of copying and pasting each of the non-text box elements and it will help you maintain the layout of the page.

DavidF

Answer 2

Me too, jar97! I found that I was able to keep the formatting the same in my previous version of Publisher, but it just can't be done in this version... that could be something to do with my poor computer skills though!!!

I have been working around this (very awkwardly) by making a copy of whichever document has the more complex formating in it, and then cutting and pasting the least complex formatting into that document (I hope that makes sense!).

Answer 3

I select all objects and want to move them from one publisher file to another... i lose the text formatting and still haven't figured out a way to force it to keep the formatting of the source document.  The (Ctrl) paste options doesn't help.  I understand it's because the styles are different in the 2 documents but there should be a simple way around this.

This issue has come up a lot with Pub 2010 and after reading this thread again I have an idea. It seems that there is no way to keep the source formatting of text if you try copying and pasting the whole page at one time. So let's try breaking the process up...

First test this with one text box from the page you are trying to paste to the new page. Follow the instructions that Mary gave above about creating a new text box, copying the text from the old text box from the source, clicking in the new text box and using the paste option that keeps the source formatting? Does the pasted text retain the formatting of the source document?

Second test by copying the entire text box from the source page and then pasting it on the new page, but once again using the option to keep the source formatting.

In other words, focus on just a single text box and see if you can copy and paste and get that text to retain the formatting from the souce code using Mary's suggestion?

DavidF

Answer 4

Hi DavidF2

Thanks for your reply. I followed your process and...

By following the first step, and using the paste option that keeps the source format it works.

For the second test, it doesn't seem to give you the option of keeping the source formatting (only allows you to paste special if you press Ctrl) and then it doesn't keep the source formatting.

That's solved the problem for cutting and pasting text boxes, it just seems like such a shame that previous versions were able to cope with cutting and pasting really complex whole page designs (e.g. with tables, images, and text boxes) but this one can't!

Thanks for your help!

Answer 5

This problem does happen in my Publisher 2007. I am doing a high school fooball program with a few different files because some sections of the program are going to be printed in color and some in blk/wht. Anyhow, the page or rather Group layout has 100 to so text boxes and pictures involved and I need to copy the WHOLE GROUP to one of the other files. The line and word spacing that I spent 3 days on copies over as a smaller font and 9pt spacing when it was .89. I have spent 10 hours trying to figure this out. It does the same thing if I save to the Content Library and then pick it up from the new doc it copies in the same smaller font and 9pt spacing.These pages are too complex to copy over piece by piece. HELP!!!!!