Pasted a Table or Spreadsheet in MS Word But Can't Enter Text

If someone has sent you a spreadsheet or table and you have pasted it into your own MS Word file, you might find yourself unable to type text and other data info directly onto it.


I first experienced this when someone sent me a price chart via Lotus Notes and I copied and pasted it to a Word document. They already had all the products they wanted to buy listed in the right column and requested that I enter the price of each of those products into the left column.


 It looked just like a spreadsheet and, after pasting it, I thought I could just activate the Word text tool ( or "I beam"), click in the price column and enter pricing.  When I clicked on this spreadsheet, nothing happened when I typed.  Plus the text tool (i beam) wasn't appearing.


Well, it turned out I had really wasn't a table or spreadsheet at all.  I was actually an image that someone pasted directly into the Lotus Notes mail they sent me. Since it is a picture I can't type on it.


My first clue should have been that this spreadsheet was not sent as an attachment.  It was pasted in full view directly onto the email.


If you find yourself in this position, there is a way to check to see if you are trying to type in vain on a picture instead of a chart or spreadsheet or table, etc.  I admit, this post won't help you to enter a text on an image (you can't in this case) but hopefully this will clarify if you are trying something that is simply not possible.






Try this:


Step 1


Open the Microsoft Word document where you pasted the table.  Keep in mind that this might not be a table at all, but that's OK :-) I'm hear to help you figure that out.  


Step 2


Double left click on the table.  You might see a border appear around this "table",


Step 3
 
Look to the top of your PC monitor screen.   If this is actually a picture instead of a table, you will see the "Picture Tools" "Format" at the top of your screen.  Word will give you lots of options on manipulating this image as well as building text around the picture, etc.  but you will not be able to type directly on it.


Hope that helps


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