Word Table to Excel Spreadsheet (2003)

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First, how many text characters can you put in a cell in Excel 2003? I have a Word table that I have to copy into an Excel spreadsheet. Many of the cells in the Word table have several hundred characters. When I copy the table (copy/paste–I have no other option) to Excel, part of the text doesn’t show up in the cell. (If I select the cell, everything shows up in the formula bar, but when I click away from the cell, the entry just stop in the middle). I can put soft returns at the end of the lines to get the text to show up in the cell, but that’s a pain and I believe there must be a better way. Thanks!

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According to Excel specifications and limits – Excel – Microsoft Office Online:[indent]

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Length of cell contents (text): 32,767 characters. Only 1,024 display in a cell; all 32,767 display in the formula bar.

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[/indent]After pasting the table, make sure it is selected, then select Format | Cells. In the Alignment tab, tick the check box “Wrap Text”, then click OK. Then select Row | Height | AutoFit.

But keep in mind that Excel is less capable than Word as a text processor.

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All of those things were done. The problem is the text wraps fine up to a certain point. Then, it just cuts the rest of the words off. If I add soft returns after those lines, the text appears (the text up to that point wraps fine and I don’t have to add returns). Needless to say, adding soft returns is a mess if you have to adjust the column width. Also, since the row height only goes to 409cm, if there’s a lot of text, I have to put some in the cell below. (That’s not an issue, though–the issue is the text cutting off for no apparent reason.)

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As I wrote, Excel’s text handling capabilities are not as good as those of Word (after all, it’s a spreadsheet program, not a word processor). I’ve noticed the truncation of lines with wrapped text myself. There’s not much you can do about it. Bottom line is that you shouldn’t put very long text strings in Excel cells…

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It’s not truncating. The text is still there, you just have to put a soft return at the end of the line. And I hear what you’re saying. I guess the work around I’m using will have to do for now. A text box might be the next best answer (Word, of course, being the BEST answer).

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Perhaps I didn’t express myself accurately (English is not my native language). By ‘truncated’ I meant that the lines are cut off on the screen.

Tezt boxes are an excellent alternative if you have to do only a few of them. If you have to import a many-celled Word table, using them becomes tedious.

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If you just want the text showing in Excel, an alternative would be to insert a text box and paste the Word text into that. It will then be shown in a floating object on top of the cells.

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