Publisher: pasting text from Word while retaining source formatting

[RogerGolding]

Apologies if this has already been answered somewhere else. I have an original source document in MS Word, .docx format. Importing the whole document into Publisher using the Place command works fine, but not copying and pasting specific sections or paragraphs, as the formatting (italics etc) is lost. I found a reference in a different forum to using compatibility mode for the original Word document, and indeed copying and pasting from a .doc version of the file seem to work fine, and retains the original formatting. Is this something that will changed in future so that copying and pasting from a .docx file will retain the original formatting? Or am I missing some other option that does this already?

Thanks

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Affinity forums.

I'm a bit confused by how you're doing the copying/pasting. Are you saying that if you use Word, and Open a .doc file, you can copy some text and then paste it into Publisher correctly, but if you Open a .docx file in Word the same operation does not work?

 

[RogerGolding]

Yes. When copying from the file with the .doc format, the source formatting is retained, but from the .docx file the source formatting is lost.

NB - this is on a Mac, using Word for Mac v. 16.94.

All methods have the same result. Whether highlighting text then using drag and drop; or selecting text via right mouse click - copy, then ditto and paste; or command+c then command+v.

[MikeTO]

@RogerGolding The issue is likely because you're copying text formatted with a font such as Calibri. Microsoft includes Calibri with MS Office but doesn't make the font available to other Mac applications. Affinity 2.6.0 substitutes Calibri with Lucida Grande but that font doesn't include an italic version so even though Affinity knows it's italics, it is shown with a non-italic font. However, if you click in the text and look at the formatting summary at the top of the Text Styles panel, you will see that it really is Italic.

You can change which fonts Affinity uses as substitutes using the Font Manager but I recommend just changing the text to another font, either in Affinity or MS Word. If you're using text styles, edit the styles and select a different font. If you're not using text styles, choose Select All and select a new font. Selecting all and choosing Arial will resolve the issue.

[RogerGolding]

This doesn't seem to be the issue. The source font is Times New Roman, and there's no font substitution happening. It stays as Times New Roman but loses bold and italic formatting, both of which exist in the Affinity version of the font. And as previously noted, it works fine when copying from the .doc version.

[MikeTO]

Can you please share a test doc file? I tried it with Times New Roman and it worked fine for me, both when the text was formatted as Times New Romand and when Normal and Heading 1 were defined as Times New Roman, which I've done with this test doc.

test.docx

[RogerGolding]

Your document worked fine! However, see attached: two text clipping files, one in .docx format and one in .doc format, and screenshot of results when pasted into Publisher. The .docx text (top) lost its formatting and the .doc text retained it. I'm think this is something to do with the compatibility option in Word. Unfortunately, in the latest version of Word for Mac I can't find where the compatibility options are defined (they are not where they used to be, and don't appear as an option when saving the file!)

text clipping 1.docx text clipping 1.doc

[MikeTO]

I got identical results with both of your files so I don't know what's going on.

To exist compatibility model in MS Word, choose File > Convert Document.

[RogerGolding]

Thanks. That option doesn't appear in my version of Word (Word for Mac 16.94). Don't worry - this isn't a forum for wrangling Microsoft Word peculiarities! At least I know that it works ok if I save the file as .doc. I just have to remember to do that in future.

[MikeTO]

3 minutes ago, RogerGolding said:

Thanks. That option doesn't appear in my version of Word (Word for Mac 16.94). Don't worry - this isn't a forum for wrangling Microsoft Word peculiarities! At least I know that it works ok if I save the file as .doc. I just have to remember to do that in future.

I have the same version of Word as you do. But note that the command is only visible when you open a .doc file. Once it's converted to docx the command will disappear.

[RogerGolding]

Oh right. yes, I see - thanks