Copying data into tables

[Carlsson]

So have I understood it right that I can't copy text from another application, and paste it into a table in Affinity Publisher, and it will output in different cells? 😟

[riball]

Various people have come up with workarounds for certain situations.  I have tried most of them but none have worked for me.

So you have understood correctly - unfortunately.

I wonder why it is taking so long for this fairly basic functionality to be added to publisher.

Richard

[Carlsson]

Ok, thanks.

That's really a bummer. I have just started to use AP, and like it a lot. Paste into tables is a very important function for me that I am used to in ID. 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Carlsson said:

So have I understood it right that I can't copy text from another application, and paste it into a table in Affinity Publisher, and it will output in different cells? 😟

You can perhaps copy table data, but if you were copying plain text how would Publisher know which cells it should go into?

What kind of text do you need to work with, and what application are you copying from?

[Carlsson]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

if you were copying plain text how would Publisher know which cells it should go into?

What kind of text do you need to work with, and what application are you copying from?

If I copy a tab-delimeted text with normal carriage returns, apps like Numbers, Excel and Indesign paste it just as you want and expect them to be pasted.

In Affinity the same text is pasted in one single cell.

 

Example; This text is tab-delimeted as mentioned:

A1    Steve    Joe
A2    Tim    Ruben
B1    Walter    Job
C3    James    Bruno

 

I am exporting text like this from a Filemaker solution and are used to just paste it with no effort into an Indesign document. Now I have to rethink my Affinity strategy. It may work this time, because I am stubborn and still want to learn the app. But with more data this will take a lot more time... 

 

[walt.farrell]

Thanks, @Carlsson.

No, that format doesn't work for me, either.

[Old Bruce]

31 minutes ago, Carlsson said:

Example; This text is tab-delimeted as mentioned:

A1    Steve    Joe
A2    Tim    Ruben
B1    Walter    Job
C3    James    Bruno

You'll need to have the foolish Unicode Paragraph Mark or what ever it is called, not Paragraph returns for the copy text to paste properly.

2029A2 unicode  Paragraph Break

[walt.farrell]

34 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

You'll need to have the foolish Unicode Paragraph Mark or what ever it is called, not Paragraph returns for the copy text to paste properly.

2029

Interesting.

I managed to make it work once with U+2029 separators between the lines, but not since then. Not sure what I did differently that one time.

[Old Bruce]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I managed to make it work once with U+2029 separators between the lines, but not since then. Not sure what I did differently that one time.

Pretty sure you need one at the end, meaning the last entry Bruno.

[Carlsson]

Should this be mentioned to the Affinity team somehow?

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, Carlsson said:

Should this be mentioned to the Affinity team somehow?

They read this forum.

[Carlsson]

Hurray! I managed to get it to work by marking all applicable cells before pasting. Last time I did that it didn't work. I don't know what I did differently.

However, if you have 100 rows you want to paste this can be tedious. 

I am thinking; Can Publisher convert existing text to a table? Then you could paste the table as text and then convert it to a table. 🤔

[Old Bruce]

6 hours ago, Carlsson said:

I am thinking; Can Publisher convert existing text to a table? Then you could paste the table as text and then convert it to a table. 🤔

Not to my knowledge.

[Sitepro]

THIS TOPIC STARTED IN 2018???!!!  AND STILL IT DOES NOT WORK PROPERLY!!! ???

I have copied and pasted from many table types into many other table types with no issues whatsoever

I have copied csv and pasted into tables, html into tables, excel into sheets, open office into excel, vice versa

I have manipulated tables extensively

AP is the most cumbersome to work with tables i have ever seen.

C'mon! Get this fixed already!

The only way I can get data pasted into tables is to paste it into some text format in AP first, then copy it and paste it into a table by selecting the exact columns and rows for the data. Takes a lot of extra time. It's almost like I have gone back into the 1990's.

 

[laotze]

Is this issue ever going to be addressed?

[Print Monkey]

Still running into same problems here. Tables need some work.

One idea is for Paste Special to have options for how to interpret the clipboard data as multiple cells rather than a huge blob of text pasted into one cell. Perhaps try to make Paste in tables "smart" by default, make "paste without formatting" force everything into one cell, and allow Paste Special to have options like CSV/TSV/RTF table data to force a particular interpretation when the default "smart paste" behavior doesn't interpret the data as intended.

[Print Monkey]

On 2/25/2022 at 2:46 PM, Sitepro said:

THIS TOPIC STARTED IN 2018???!!!  AND STILL IT DOES NOT WORK PROPERLY!!! ???

I have copied and pasted from many table types into many other table types with no issues whatsoever

I have copied csv and pasted into tables, html into tables, excel into sheets, open office into excel, vice versa

I have manipulated tables extensively

AP is the most cumbersome to work with tables i have ever seen.

C'mon! Get this fixed already!

The only way I can get data pasted into tables is to paste it into some text format in AP first, then copy it and paste it into a table by selecting the exact columns and rows for the data. Takes a lot of extra time. It's almost like I have gone back into the 1990's.

 

1 year later....

yes this seems like a major oversight in Publisher

[Laganama]

Even copying from "supported" apps like Libre Office is not ideal. Publisher adds one empty row below the last one (while the original content is deleted).

[GuyMiklos]

After much frustration and wasting well over an hour with out success, I finally stumbled upon a way that worked on a MacBook. I hope this helps somebody out there.

I organised the table in GoogleSheets. Then copied and pasted the table content into TextEdit. From TextEdit I copied and pasted into a text frame in  Affinity Publisher. Then I made an empty table in AP. Then I copied and pasted the data from the text frame into the table. 

One day AP will support this. Until then - happy workaround-round-round-round-round-rounds.