Copy and Paste in XP

[Ed_L]

Greg submitted a recipe for spicy pita chips. Most of the amounts of ingredients were listed as fractions of a teaspoon. It wouldn't print properly from the site, so I copied it and opened a new text document to paste into. I printed it out, and gave it to my wife. She told me there was something wrong with the recipe, and on checking, I found that 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper printed out as 18 teaspoon cayenne pepper. HOT!! All ingredients printed as whole numbers instead of fractions. Just thought I'd let you know before you set your house on fire.

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

Ed,
I can't figure out what's wrong because I have XP and when I did a copy and paste of Gregs recipe into Microsoft Word the measurements came out as 1/4 or 1/8 etc. I can't even imagine why copying it to your word document would eliminate the back slashes between the fractions. That's strange.
DJ

[Ed_L]

Hmmm, maybe I have a software problem? I've copied text on several occasions, but I can't paste it into Word (but I'm not very familiar with it). It will paste into notepad though. It should paste into Word too, shouldn't it?

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

I have noticed something with Word that is kind of wierd though. I will highlight something when I'm on the net and copy it, then I open Word and go to paste it and notice that the paste is greyed out as if there is nothing on the clipboard. So I go back to the page I copied from and recopy it then go back to Word and paste is available. This only happens when I copy something first before opening the Word program. If Word is already open, I don't have that problem. Don't know if that is similar to what's happening to you but if nothing else, you know you aren't the only frustrated user. Maybe you need to dust off that hammer again.
DJ

[Ed_L]

Thanks Debbie. Maybe I won't need the hammer if I open Word first. I never tried it that way, and I never tried to copy text twice before pasting. I'll give it a try.

Ed

[Ed_L]

Debbie,

I tried to copy and paste text from a web page with Word already open. It worked just fine like you said. I wonder why it needs to be opened first? But I guess the important thing is that now we know how to do it! Thanks again.

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

Now that makes me wonder if it's an XP thing. I figured that what I discovered with Word using XP might be the same thing happening to you. Yes, it is kind of wierd. But at least it's something we are aware of now and can work with.
DJ

[Sharon]

Hi Ed and DJ,

I have Office 97 on an XP Operating System. I checked to see if I had the same problem as you and Ed. I copied Ed’s post with the fraction in it, then opened up Word. Everything copied fine. What version of Word are you two using?

Sharon

[DJ Dubovsky]

I'm using Microsoft Word 2000. I can't say why it's happening but it sure is and it's consistant.
That is interesting Sharon. Thanks for giving it a try. Maybe we can eventually figure it out. Until then, I guess we just open it first.
DJ

[George]

Ed and DJ

I also checked to see if I had the same problem as you and Ed. I copied Ed’s post with the fraction in it, then opened Word 2002 (on Windows XP system) pasted it and everything copied fine.

George

[Ed_L]

Thanks for taking the time to try this. I'm using the same version as Debbie. While I was at the local library, I spotted some magazines they had for sale @ $.10 ea. I picked up a few PC magazines, and there is an article in one of them about using the office clipboard. Haven't had a chance to read it yet, but skipping through it proved that it had info that I was not aware of. If I come up with anything worth posting, I'll pass it on.

Ed

[Ed_L]

I can do better than pass on the information.....here's the link to the article! http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,...3D18522,00.asp

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

I always wondered why that clipboard thingy popped up at unusual times but didn't pop up other times. I just thought it was a nuisance personally. It makes it look as if Office is inconsistant at times when dealing with other programs. Anyway it was a good article Ed and I thank you for finding it for us.
DJ

[Ed_L]

You're welcome. I found the article *very* useful. I didn't even know you could copy more than one thing at a time.

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

Neither did I Ed. Although I have to admit that Word and any of the office programs are on my "Weakest Link" list. There's no program that I get more frustrated in than Word. No matter what I think it will do, it does something completely opposite. Guess I should get a Dummies book on that one.
DJ