Extracting Table Data in Word

April 24, 2007 8:21 PM

[Word Filter] I have a Word document consisting of a giant table with columns such as last name, first name, address, etc. Is there a way to extract the table data to another document in such a way that I preserve the order of the information, but lose the cells, rows and columns? Whenever I try to cut and paste, I end up just taking the table with me - exactly what I DON'T want to do...
posted by delosic to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Did you try Edit/Paste special.../Text?
posted by zixyer at 8:24 PM on April 24, 2007

Best answer: Or Table Menu > Convert > Table to Text ?
posted by clarahamster at 8:26 PM on April 24, 2007

I did this the other day. In my case, table > merge cells, was just the ticket.
posted by -harlequin- at 8:40 PM on April 24, 2007

Depends on the version of Word. In Word 2003 / 2007, when you paste, you should see a small "clip board"-like icon, which will grow into a contextual menu when you click on it. You'll be able to select formatting options there, including "text only" or something similar (I'd get it exactly, but I'm at home on my MacBook and don't have ready access to a Windows box)

Hope that helps / I'm right. :)
posted by ZakDaddy at 8:49 PM on April 24, 2007

cnp to Notepad. Then cnp wherever you like. You might need to tidy the formatting a smidge.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 9:04 PM on April 24, 2007

You may also be able to paste it into a plain text editor like notepad, then select all in notepad, copy and then go back to word and paste.
posted by i love cheese at 9:04 PM on April 24, 2007

OK, this was really bugging me so I VPN'ed into work and tried it on Office 2007 under Windows XP. The skinny:

The icon is, indeed, a clipboard. In my example, it appeared just outside the bottom right hand corner of the freshly-pasted table. Clicking on it reveals a menu with these options:

o - Keep Source Formatting
o - Match Destination Formatting
o - Keep Text Only

Sounds like you want the Keep Text Only option. YMMV.
posted by ZakDaddy at 11:04 PM on April 24, 2007

Best answer: Table>Convert>Table to Text> then set 'delimit by tabs' or whatever the setting is. Then it'll look the same and have the same layout, but without the lines.
posted by altolinguistic at 12:12 AM on April 25, 2007

Sort of repeating an earlier response... but:

Select all of your table.
Copy.
Go to your new document.
Under the edit menu, select "paste special"
Choose "unformatted text"
That should do it.
posted by jerryg99 at 9:52 AM on April 25, 2007

Response by poster: Thank for all the great responses. I will play with them when I get to the office tomorrow. You all have saved me having to retype about 500 names and contact information. Thanks!
posted by delosic at 7:53 PM on April 26, 2007