Some Empty Excel Spreadsheet Cells Are Merged in WinWord Table

ID: Q94982

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for Windows versions 2.0, 2.0a, 2.0a-CD, 2.0b, 2.0c, 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c

SUMMARY

When you paste a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet in Word for Windows, sometimes Word merges two Excel cells into one table cell. This happens if both of the following are true in the Excel spreadsheet:

The information in the left cell does not fit in the column (the text word wraps, or it is truncated).

-and-

The right cell is blank.

Workarounds

Type a space in the blank Excel spreadsheet cells before you copy and paste them in Word.

-or-

In Word, choose Paste Special from the Edit menu. Select Unformatted Text from the Data Type list and choose the Paste button. This pastes delimited text in your Word document, which you can select and convert to a Word table.

Steps to Reproduce Problem

1. In an Excel spreadsheet with default column width settings, type

   "this is a test" (without the quotation marks) in cell A1.

2. Press TAB twice and type "123" (without the quotation marks) in

   cell C1. Cell B1 should be blank.

3. Select A1 through C1 (three cells). From the Edit menu, choose

   Copy.

4. Switch to Word for Windows. In a Word document, choose Paste from

   the Edit menu. Notice that only two cells appear in Word instead of
   three. Word has merged cells A1 and B1.

We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

KBCategory: kbusage KBSubcategory: kbtable Additional query words: 2.0 2.0a 2.0a-CD 2.0b 2.0c empty 6.0 word6 winword winword2 missing together

Keywords          : kbtable 
Version           : 2.0 2.0a 2.0a-CD 2.0b 2.0c
Platform          : WINDOWS

Last Reviewed: February 6, 1998