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Copy and paste data from a table


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Now that I have created a table with lots of information in a Note, I would like to be able to use that in other places and ways. For example, it would be helpful to be able to load the table in Excel so I can sort, summarise, etc.

I have found that if I copy a table, however, all of the text is concatenated with no formatting, and witout even a space separating text in once cell from the next.

Am I missing something here?

is there a way to copy a table so that I can paste it somewhere else?

Thanks.

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Best and quickest solution is to embed a spreadsheet document in the note. When you click the icon it will open up in your spreadsheet software ready for editing. If you want to use Evernote's search functions, just print the document to PDF and save that version too, or copy and paste from the open document window directly into the note. You don't have to do that every edit - the first save will probably contain enough keywords to find the file for some time.

(If you want to see your spreadsheet on a mobile client, you may have to use PDF or JPG saves.)

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I have found that if I copy a table, however, all of the text is concatenated with no formatting, and witout even a space separating text in once cell from the next.

I have observed this behavior also.

Interestingly enough, I have found that the table will paste as a table into Word, but not into Excel.

When I go to Excel Edit > Paste Special, it present only two options: (1) Unicode Text; (2) Text

Both Excel and Word should be seeing the data on the clipboard as a HTML table.

I have copied lots of HTML tables from Web pages into Excel with great success.

So there must be something that Evernote is not providing on the clipboard.

The problem with just attaching a Word or Excel file is that neither are indexed for searching, and of course, the attachment contents is NOT displayed in EN.

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I copied a simple table from a note and examined it using the third-party program ClipSpy.

The clipped data stored on the clipboard is available in several formats, including HTML.

When pasted into MS Word 2010, the table was retained. This also worked for Excel 2010; each cell in the table mapped to a separate cell in the spreadsheet.

I also round-tripped a selection from an Excel spreadsheet into Evernote and then back into a different Excel spreadsheet. While the original cell formatting was stripped when pasted into Evernote, the table remained, and when copied from Evernote back into Excel, all of the cells transferred.

It would seem that the basics work, but it's always possible that there are bugs as well.

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One of the issues that I have (largely by endless and mindless trial and error) is that Evernote doesn't like "Styles" as used by Microsoft Office documents. As I understand it, a MS Style is essentially a corollary to a CSS style on the web. The problem is that, unlike CSS styles from the web which EN (generally) is able to interpret and render (generally, with some occasional difficulty), EN is not able to understand the MS Styles. I have concluded that the MS Styles are either:

  1. Embedded in a way which EN cannot interpret (i.e. non-conforming or improperly named based upon CSS rules);
  2. Embedded in a proprietary manner which prevents EN from parsing them properly; or
  3. Not embedded at all

I know this can also be a problem for some pages which utilize inline CSS styles which are embedded in the header rather than in a common Style sheet.

The reason I have so concluded is based -- most recently -- on a MS Word table I tried to import to EN which EN stripped of all style-based formatting but which retained any inline html formatting which was different than the default style.

All that said, the interaction is a bit hit-or-miss. Also, FWIW, I know I have heard from other developers that the MS Office products often refuse to play nice with third-party products in such ways.

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  • 5 months later...

It requires an extra step, but when I copy/paste a table from Excel into Word and then copy/paste from Word into Evernote, it retains most of the formatting from Excel, and it's editable/viewable without having to open in an external app. More importantly (for me) is its immediate availability in my mobile Evernote app.

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It requires an extra step, but when I copy/paste a table from Excel into Word and then copy/paste from Word into Evernote, it retains most of the formatting from Excel . . .

I have noticed this as well. Pasting a table from Excel to EN Mac does not work, whereas pasting from Word to Excel works very well.

Clearly, Evernote needs to examine how they are interpreting a paste from Excel.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

I just wish there was a way to migrate tables from OneNote to Evernote. I can get tables into Evernote via the web-browser interface (the only way I've found to paste a copied table into Evernote,) but the location of text within each cell is "padded" with a bit of white space around the perimeter. This is fine, but when I go to add new cells (new rows or new columns) all new text appears flush against the edge of its cell. So I end up with some cells formatted one way, and new cells formatted another way, and no apparent way to make them consistent one way or the other.

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  • 5 months later...

I had a two column list of 60+ items that I wanted in a table in Evernote but I did NOT want to retype or cut-and-paste the information. I converted the data into an html table by adding the tags in a text editor, pulled up the html in my browser, copied and pasted the table from browser to Evernote, and it seems to recognize it as a table.  Right clicking within it brings up the table menu, allowing the addition or deletion of rows and columns.

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  • 1 year later...

Aargh. I wish the Evernote Product team would make it so we could make a table in evernote and then copy and paste it into other software like Word or PowerPoint or Excel.  For users to create a table in excel and then put it into evernote is crazy since the point of the product is to take notes in the moment and not have to do it elsewhere and copy it over

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Aargh. I wish the Evernote Product team would make it so we could make a table in evernote and then copy and paste it into other software like Word or PowerPoint or Excel.  For users to create a table in excel and then put it into evernote is crazy since the point of the product is to take notes in the moment and not have to do it elsewhere and copy it over

To paste tables and other content from Office or other applications is not crazy -- I certainly have use cases for this.

Evernote is not really primarily designed to be a quick note-taking application (though you can often use it as such), but instead it's a repository for notes and other content that you want to keep and organize.

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Evernote is not really primarily designed to be a quick note-taking application (though you can often use it as such), but instead it's a repository for notes and other content that you want to keep and organize.

 

 

I'm not sure why you would say that unless you have access to internal Evernote design documents, or to Evernote designers.

 

I don't know what the "primary" design was/is, but it is clear to me that Evernote functions very well as a "quick note-taking application".  With the EN global shortcut keys, I can quickly, from any other app, create/open a new EN Note, copy from the app and save the clipboard to a new EN Note.  Then there is the "Quick Note" feature in the Apple menu.

 

What's that old saying, "if it walks like a duck. . ."   :D

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Uh, please spare me your usual nitpickery.  Here's what I said, and you actually quoted, but somehow misunderstood (I've added some italics to aid in your comprehension):

 

 

Evernote is not really primarily designed to be a quick note-taking application (though you can often use it as such), but instead it's a repository for notes and other content that you want to keep and organize.

 

Here's what you said:

 

I don't know what the "primary" design was/is, but it is clear to me that Evernote functions very well as a "quick note-taking application". 

How does what I contradict what you said?

 

After having used Evernote for over 6 years now, followed its development and marketing pretty closely, read the things that its employees say about it, and used it enough so that I can be a resource to advise other users, not to mention having a pretty strong software development background myself, I think I have a handle on its intended usages. You don't need to see their internal docs or be cozy with the designers for that.

 

There are scads of note-taking applications out there, some of which probably do it better than Evernote; however, they tend not to have the organizational facilities plus the easy ability to to get stuff into Evernote, mixed with having your notes available across different devices that make Evernote so valuable to me, and raises it above the level of mere note-taker.

 
Sure, you can use it primarily as a quick note-taking app, but why would you? Evernote's real strengths lie elsewhere.
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How does what I contradict what you said?

 

After having used Evernote for over 6 years now, followed its development and marketing pretty closely, read the things that its employees say about it, and used it enough so that I can be a resource to advise other users, not to mention having a pretty strong software development background myself, I think I have a handle on its intended usages. You don't need to see their internal docs or be cozy with the designers for that.

 

Please, spare us your inflated resume.

 

The point is that YOU don't know what the "primary" design was, but you stated it as if you had some type of authoritative knowledge.

 

It is really irrelevant what the primary design was, so I don't see any point in potentially misleading others.

Evernote clearly works very well as a "quick note-taking" app.  That's all we really need to know.

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  • 1 year later...

I figured out a way to copy data into excel from Evernote that keeps it as "numbers" not text. 

Copy table data into notepad, then copy from notepad to Evernote. I didn't have to do this prior to November. Previously copying and pasting data was not an issue.  Evernote stop changing your platform without testing. You give me a headache. 

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18 hours ago, cynsun said:

I figured out a way to copy data into excel from Evernote that keeps it as "numbers" not text. 

Copy table data into notepad, then copy from notepad to Evernote. I didn't have to do this prior to November. Previously copying and pasting data was not an issue.  Evernote stop changing your platform without testing. You give me a headache. 

Whether or not the numbers are recognised as such or come up as text is not the issue in this thread.  You may get more useful comment if you start a new post with more detail about what's happening when you paste a table from Evernote to your spreadsheet,  and why it matters...

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