How to copy/paste a table from LibreOffice Calc to LibreOffice Writer

Question

I am trying to copy/paste a 4 column table from LibreOffice Calc to LibreOffice Writer but when I paste it, it makes a table extraction from Calc. I also created a table in LibreOffice Writer using the Table tool in Writer an tried to paste the data from the Calc Table into the Writer Table. It created yet the same thing, another Calc Table copy.

So how can I grab the content of a 4 column table in Calc and paste it in a 4 column table from Writer.

score 67 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 08 '15 at 12:34

67

Copy the sample data in Calc.

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If you try to directly paste into your original table all infos will be pasted into the first cell instead of several columns or rows, respectively.

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Instead put the cursor in an empty space in the document, e.g. a normal paragraph not a cell in a table.

In the Writer menu select Edit -> Paste Special (Ctrl + Shift + V) and then select "Formatted Text".

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Now you will see your table from Calc pasted into Writer.

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In the next step you can now select this table and copy and paste it into your original table.

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Voila!

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The advantage of this method is that you don't have to fix the bad formatting of paste special.

edited Oct 08 '15 at 12:34

hg8

13,462

answered Mar 07 '13 at 18:37

Sina

1,053

7

Yes, it works. But it is totally silly. Thumbs down for LibreOffice. I need this 10 years now. MS does it! – Chameleon Apr 02 '15 at 18:06
1

Thanks for this solution. This is usually the desired behavior when you paste table data into a table in Writer. This should happen in one step even if it involves "Paste Special" – Alecz Apr 17 '17 at 18:29
Awesome answer. Way better than the accepted one. Thanks – Martin Mar 16 '18 at 18:48

score 49 · Accepted Answer · answered May 04 '11 at 20:43

49

Can I suggest, in Writer, choose Edit - Paste Special. Then select "Formatted Text". This will paste the text in a table which you can then format/add borders etc.

answered May 04 '11 at 20:43

fossfreedom

172,746

16

does not seem to work when pasting several columns into an existing table in writer. It will paste all columns into one single cell of the table instead several columns. – n3rd Sep 28 '11 at 02:33
4

Edit->"Inhalte einfügen"->HTML or "Formatted Text" work great for me. Thanks! – alfonx Mar 14 '12 at 19:05
1

Same problem faced by myself. Solution work only after i also did the trick suggested by @Alan – kuldeep.kamboj Mar 22 '13 at 05:45

score 18 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 16 '13 at 17:32

18

This didn't work for me as it created dozens of tiny separate tables.

I then found a simple way around it as follows. (I was working with a large spreadsheet table about 50 rows and 10 columns.)

In calc select the area reqired and copy it [ctrl - C]
in writer on a plain bit of the page paste the clipboard as UNformatted text. It will paste with tabs between the cell data and carrige returns at the ends of the rows
Select the whole text and use [table] [convert] [text to table] using the default settings

Works like magic

answered Oct 16 '13 at 17:32

Richard Jannaway

181

5

This answer changed my life forever. – OregonTrail Oct 28 '13 at 07:15
This works great if the cells all contain text or you don't mind losing the formatting. If you want to keep special formatting for numbers then you might prefer Sina's method. – Iain Samuel McLean Elder Dec 29 '14 at 04:07
2

This is the proper answer – Attila Fulop Feb 12 '15 at 11:33
2

In LibreOffice 6 at least, the shortcut for unformatted paste is Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V. So Ctrl+V = regular paste, Ctrl+Shift+V = paste special (dialog), Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V = paste unformatted. – MS Berends Dec 10 '18 at 11:01
I just heard angels singing... – Digger Aug 17 '20 at 22:06
Richard Jannaway, you are the most beautiful person on the face of the earth. (My wife excepted.) May blessing be poured upon you. – Mike Taylor Nov 19 '21 at 21:36

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 08 '13 at 15:22

4

if you fail to update the table contents by pasting, try pasting the data to somewhere empty on the page first, and the copy it back into the table, which works for me

answered Jan 08 '13 at 15:22

Alan

41

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 20 '16 at 22:06

3

My preferred way to paste (formatted) tables from Calc to Writer is via the HTML editor of LibreOffice. Do this:

Copy the table from Calc,
Paste it in the HTML editor,
Copy again,
Paste it in writer.

You will have your table pasted as a table (with the right number of columns and rows) and with a good part of formatting conserved.

edited Sep 20 '16 at 22:06

answered Sep 16 '14 at 16:03

Fabio Marroni

523
1
7
17

This did the trick with an existing table, copying from spreadsheet and pasting as suggested in the HTML editor but we need to paste special as HTML in order to get an HTML table. After which all the formats in the existing table will be observed by the new data. Somehow, not the font size but the font itself is observed. Thank you very much. – Geppettvs D'Constanzo Mar 31 '19 at 04:59

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Aug 18 '21 at 01:36

1

In LibreOffice version 7 you can do Paste Special > More Options > [and select the image format you need]

edited Aug 18 '21 at 01:36

Greenonline

2,081

answered Aug 17 '21 at 09:42

Widi Raspito Utomo

11

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 03 '14 at 11:43

1

I tried all the different options offered by Edit -> Paste Special (Ctrl + Shift + V) and the one that worked best for me was the option of pasting it as HTML. This way it kept all the formatting and colors. It was a complex table with 11 columns and more than 200 rows with cells of different sizes.

All formating kept.

If it makes any difference I'm using Libreoffice 4.2.6.2. It might work different on earlier versions.

Hope it helps.

answered Aug 03 '14 at 11:43

dmc

11

I tried this with some decimal data. It keeps all the formatting but rounds fractional numbers to two decimal places. – Iain Samuel McLean Elder Dec 29 '14 at 04:11

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 14 '21 at 21:10

0

When pasting from Calc into an existing table in Writer, then what worked for me best and quickest was to:

Click somewhere inside your existing table in Writer, in the first column
Select Edit -> Paste Special -> Paste as rows above

answered Apr 14 '21 at 21:10

Tomek

111

How to copy/paste a table from LibreOffice Calc to LibreOffice Writer

8 Answers8

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