# Pasting Table Formatted Text **URL:** \ **Category:** RapidWeaver Classic\ **Created:** [June 2, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503 "2016-06-02T17:34:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gregs](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/gregs/32/34894_2.png) [@gregs](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/gregs)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/1 "2016-06-02T17:34:05Z")
When pasting table formatted text from Word to RapidWeaver there is a huge amount of blank space above the table in the preview, but not the edit view. I don’t see any hidden formating in Word. How do I remove this space? ---
**Author:** ![thang](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/thang/32/303_2.png) [@thang](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/thang)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/2 "2016-06-02T17:36:34Z")
Try using the “paste as plain text option” in the edit menu right underneath the regular paste menu item. ---
**Author:** ![gregs](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/gregs/32/34894_2.png) [@gregs](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/gregs)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/3 "2016-06-02T17:38:32Z")
Thanks, but I’d like to keep the text table-formated. ---
**Author:** ![RapidBase](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/rapidbase/32/24626_2.png) [@RapidBase](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/RapidBase)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/4 "2016-06-02T18:24:57Z")
thang is right: never paste stuff from Word into a RapidWeaver page before you’ve cleaned up the code. The code Word produces is bloated, wrong and ugly and shouldn’t ever be used. Either you’ll have to code the table manually or you use one of the available table stacks. For the best results you could import a CSV or Excel file into RapidWeaver using a stack like Grid Iron or PowerGrid. ---
**Author:** ![gregs](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/gregs/32/34894_2.png) [@gregs](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/gregs)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/5 "2016-06-02T20:02:00Z")
Agreed, looking at the Word source code of a simple table I see it is unbelievably complicated (like most MS products). It is a shame there isn’t another way to strip out unnecessary coding and be able to copy/paste without buying another stack. ---
**Author:** ![Mathew](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/mathew/32/2771_2.png) [@Mathew](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Mathew)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 8:23pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/6 "2016-06-02T20:23:01Z")
@gregs: There may be a couple of additional pre-buying stacks options for you. (Though the stacks are not that expensive.) Depending on the size and complication of the table it may be just as effective to take a screenshot in Word, save as PNG, and then use that PNG in your webpage. This doesn’t work for long or complicated tables, but is perfectly fine for simpler shorter tables. I often create simple tables in OmniGraffle and save as PNG or SVG direct into RW. I would do a quick search of the web. There are several web-based sources that convert tables (in various formats) to pure HTML. Then you only need use the provided HTML code. Of course it may not end up with the styling you want: thus the place for some of the table stacks. But depending on your theme, a pure HTML table using the styling provided by your theme might be perfectly fine. ---
**Author:** ![barchard](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/barchard/32/2292_2.png) [@barchard](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/barchard)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/7 "2016-06-02T20:53:28Z")
@gregs @Mathew I would not advise on taking a screenshot and using that. This would not carry or provide any SEO benefits! It’d also be a pretty poor user experience. Why not check out [Grid Iron](http://rapidweavercommunity.com/addons/stacks/grid-iron)? It’s built for tabular/spreadsheet data! It can read a CSV, excel or google spreadsheet and turn it into a rich and responsive table. No messy cut and paste. No screenshots. Just happy easy to use tables and happy users 🙂 Greg ---
**Author:** ![RapidBase](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/rapidbase/32/24626_2.png) [@RapidBase](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/RapidBase)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/8 "2016-06-02T21:21:49Z")
Yep, can only recommend Grid Iron! Very easy to use and highly configurable. Haven’t worked with Joes PowerGrid stack yet, but am sure it would also fit the bill. And not to forget the newest addition to the “table stack family”: Table Pro from CosCulture: [http://www.cosculture.com/plugins-stacks/product/table-pro/](http://www.cosculture.com/plugins-stacks/product/table-pro/) Worth a look for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Mathew](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/mathew/32/2771_2.png) [@Mathew](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Mathew)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 9:49pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/9 "2016-06-02T21:49:01Z")
@barchard: I agree. Grid Iron is great. If someone is going to use tables a lot, then it’s a fantastic way to go! ---
**Author:** ![scottsteven](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/scottsteven/32/3418_2.png) [@scottsteven](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/scottsteven)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 2:44am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/10 "2016-06-03T02:44:03Z")
I have dozens of these tables from word and I hate them. slowly redoing them all with proper stacks . time consuming but much better than the mess that was coming in from word ---
**Author:** ![peppermint](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/peppermint/32/218_2.png) [@peppermint](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/peppermint)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/11 "2016-06-03T03:14:35Z")
For a simple table you can build in Excel and export as .htm ---
**Author:** ![Gremlin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/97f17d/32.png) [@Gremlin](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Gremlin)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 10:22am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/12 "2017-01-29T10:22:32Z")
Converting 20 years worth of table pages, one page per year, just really simple pages with four columns, text in three of them and a link in the last. Just need a very simple table for each of the 20 pages; exporting from excel produces terrible results and I cannot find a simple way to insert a table into Rapidweaver. I am a new RW user and find it hard to accept that there is no way to insert a table without buying an add-on (a stack). Is there really no simple way to add and format a 4 by X table in this product? ---
**Author:** ![RapidBase](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/rapidbase/32/24626_2.png) [@RapidBase](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/RapidBase)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 5:39pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/13 "2017-01-29T17:39:55Z")
You could simply work with an HTML page or use the stock HTML-stack to do the tables. But if you really intend to “convert 20 years worth of table pages”, why don’t you just buy one of the many table stacks available? Isn’t the time you’ll be saving worth the few bucks for a stack…? ---
**Author:** ![Gremlin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/97f17d/32.png) [@Gremlin](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Gremlin)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 11:36pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/14 "2017-01-29T23:36:33Z")
> [@RapidBase](#): > > …why don’t you just buy one of the many table stacks available? Because there are just 20 pages, each with a single table and RW is the only product that I have used that doesn’t natively support tables. I can copy/paste the tables between different tools such as Word, TextWrangler and others and they render perfectly. Copying the table or even the html into RW results in an unusable mess. Creating a completely blank table in another tool, then copying into RW results in something that displays (almost) correctly. As soon as I put anything into the cells the formatting is destroyed. For example, first column is date; entering YYYYMMDD works fine, entering 30th January with the “th” as superscript causes RW to place the “30th” outside the table at the top of the page. The last column is a link to another html page; many of these entries contain links to different pages in the same cell, works fine in everything _other_ than RW, which again places the second link at the top of the page, outside the table. I need to create 20, simple, static, non-dynamic tables…RW won’t let me, it won’t format the html the same as other packages and so I am lost how to do this… ---
**Author:** ![skillet](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/skillet/32/1501_2.png) [@skillet](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/skillet)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/15 "2020-03-27T19:45:58Z")
I’ve got files saved as rich text and that doesn’t seem to work either. Everything bunches together on the page. Is there a way around this, a stack I can by? I am not working with tables so GridIron is not really applicable. I saved as PDF and copied from there and I get closer but not quite. ---
**Author:** ![robbeattie](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/robbeattie/32/78_2.png) [@robbeattie](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/robbeattie)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 8:33am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/16 "2020-03-28T08:33:10Z")
Anything you paste into RW must be plain text, oterwise you’ll end up with a mess. What exactly is it you’re trying to do? Rob ---
**Author:** ![skillet](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/skillet/32/1501_2.png) [@skillet](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/skillet)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/17 "2020-04-21T00:48:56Z")
Shoot, sorry I didn’t see your reply. I ended up figuring out what the issue was it was soft returns rather than hard returns. I found out I need to replace them like this. 1. Highlight the paragraph 2. Go to find and replace (ctrl+h) 3. In the Find box, enter ^l 4. In the Replace box, enter ^p 5. Click Replace All … ---
**Author:** ![joemart1951](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/joemart1951/32/1193_2.png) [@joemart1951](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/joemart1951)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 4:00am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pasting-table-formatted-text/7503/18 "2020-04-21T04:00:22Z")
Export as csv and use PowerGrid