Is there a simple substitution in InDesign CS 3.0 for the Paste Special feature in PM7?

[Barbara_Tywon@adobeforums.com]

I currently work in a brokerage firm, creating over 100, 40-page, 2-colour research reports annually in PM7 (Windows XP, 2.4 GHz, 500 mb RAM). All reports require styling text and tables (tables copied from Excel/Word/Lotus, pasted “Special” as raw text in PM7 & formatted), charts and vector graphics (formatted in CorelDRAW with a PMS colour, exported as EPS files) and raster images (monotone Photoshop EPS files).

I have two related concerns about moving this process to InDesign. Our publishing process allows for multiple edits, which requires updating table numbers by re copy-pasting “Special” as raw text into PM7 (retains the specific tabs and styles of a table). With multiple tables in a report (each having 2 to 18 tab settings), I have one table style with 5 tabs and add or reduce tabs on the fly for each new table. Since ID doesn't support the “Paste Special” function, the new data pastes into the original 5-tab style and not the modified style the table may now have. So I have to reposition the tab settings every time I paste in an updated table. Is there a less time-consuming way to do this?

Second concern: We produce a monthly 120+ page report that currently consists of copying more than 50 pre-formatted Excel charts and pasting them “Special” as Metafiles into the PM7 pages. Since ID can’t accept “Paste Special as a Windows metafile”, the only workaround I can see to avoid rasterizing the graphic in ID is to copy-paste the chart from Excel into Illustrator, then copy-paste the graphic from Illustrator into ID.

This report also contains 50+ pages of full-page tables, again, pre-formatted in Excel and copy-pasted as Metafiles into PM7 (less than 30 seconds' work for each one). It seems my workaround would be to print each Excel table to file, distill the *.prn file to PDF (to accommodate our offset printer's required option settings), then place each PDF into my ID layout.

All of this greatly extends the work process in an already tight time-frame. Is there to better way to do this in ID?

Thanks

[Jens Schulze]

> So I have to reposition the tab settings every time I paste

> in an updated table. Is there a less time-consuming way
> to do this?

Check the plugin SmartStyles from Woodwing, you can save the layout of a
table in a library and attach it to any new table. Very cool this thing, and
even scriptable via the scripting interface.

> Second concern: We produce a monthly 120+ page report [..]

As metafile (which is not a professional dtp format) isn't a supported file
format anymore, there is no other way, sorry

> This report also contains 50+ pages of full-page tables, [...]

Native ID tables with SmartStyles or PDF I would say.

Jens

[Barbara_Tywon@adobeforums.com]

Thanks, Jens

I'll definitely check into SmartStyles.

Re: my copy/paste special efforts. I accidentally discovered that if I select the text to be replaced in any table, but stop the selection just before the end of the last row it retains all tab formatting. I learned that when I highlighted the rows with my mouse, dragging the mouse to include everything on the final row, it would capture some hidden code that caused the new data to default to another style in error. But if I select the data just up to the end of the line, I miss grabbing this hidden code and the style and tab settings remain intact.

Obviously the more I work with the program the more I'll figure out!

Thanks for your help.