Insert Word/RTF page(s) from clipboard

[David.P]

Hi forum & Tracker team,

I just found that it is possible to insert new pages into an existing PDF using Text or RTF files, using "Document -> Insert Pages...", which is great.

Sometimes, it would be even easier if this was also possible with text from the clipboard.

Is this already possible somehow (other than with my workaround below which only works for single pages)?

Thanks for considering,
Cheers David.P
--
This is a quick way to transfer single pages from Word into a PDF:

1.) add blank page in your PDF in PDF-XChange Editor
2.) copy entire Word page (can contain all sorts of formatting, tables, even graphics)
3.) paste into empty PDF page in PDF-XChange Editor
4.) if desired, move result around on the PDF page until you like what you see
5.) right click and choose "flatten"

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi David,

Thanks for the suggestion - I'll pass it along for consideration

[David.P]

Thank you very much Will, for passing the suggestion along.

Imagine how useful it would be to be able to quickly insert a few pages of text (including basic formatting and the like) from Word (or from any text processor, for that matter) into a PDF document, without having to go the usual "print from Word as PDF, then insert the printed pages into your PDF document" way.



Cheers
David

[Will - Tracker Supp]

[David.P]

I was just going to add a screenshot to the present thread that shows how fantastic it already is to be able to add pages using Rich Text via clipboard into a PDF document with PDF-XChange Editor.

In the screenshot, the first page (which I unfortunately had to blur for privacy) has been created by simply copying body text from an Outlook email (!) which then simply has been pasted from the clipboard into a blank page in PDF-XChange Editor.

There was absolutely no tinkering or formatting whatsoever necessary to produce this perfect PDF representation of the contents of the aforementioned email. As goes without saying, of course there was also no "printing to PDF" or the like required or involved.



This way, it takes only like seconds to add new external content to an electronic file PDF document.

This is already stunning in my view. If, as it is the subject of the present thread, this could be extended in order to be able to also paste content that is longer than one page, this would add another one to the already many unique features that make PDF-XChange Editor stand out.

Cheers
David.P

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi David,

Thanks for the kind words.
Because of the way PDF pages are described inside the file structure - pasting content to more than one page might be a bit problematic - but I will keep that in mind and bring it up for discussion on our next weekly meeting.

Regards,
Stefan

[David.P]

Hello Stefan,

thank you for the quick reply and for your mention of the file structure.

Maybe the multi-page transfer of RTF via clipboard is not even so difficult to implement, since the creation of a PDF file from a Rich Text file already works perfectly also with multi-page documents.

Below is a PDF created from a Word document that has been simply saved as RTF and then opened in PDF-XChange Editor via "File -> New Document-> From RTF files".



Since as I understand clipboard contents usually are very similar in structure to an actual RTF-file, such RTF transfer to PDF-XChange Editor probably should work similarly if the RTF content is not transferred via a file on the hard disk but instead via the clipboard.

Thank you in advance for bringing this subject up for discussion once again!

Best regards
David

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi David,

I was not aware of the specifics - so thanks for sharing those extra details.

Cheers,
Stefan

[David.P]

My pleasure Stefan.
Thank you,
David

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

[David.P]

Hello @all,

I just was going to insert rich text from an outlook e-mail in to a blank PDF page in PDF-XChange Editor, as I have done hundreds of times before) -- but it would not work.

Instead, a comment text box containing the pur text without formatting was created on that empty page.

I dont understand this since the only thing that has changed is that I have switched to 4K monitors.

Strangely, the feature works as usual in the portable version of PDF-XChange Editor!

Thanks for any ideas what could be wrong here,

Regards
David.P

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi David,

When pasting text into the Editor, a textbox is created and it uses the properties that you currently have set to be default. To my knowledge, this has always been the way it was handled. Adobe also does this the same way.

For now, as a workaround, place a blank textbox first and then paste the data into the pre-created textbox. This should keep the original formatting.

In the future, we plan to offer extended paste options, similar to MS Office apps and these should allow for you to paste and keep the formatting, without first manually creating the textbox.

Cheers,

[David.P]

Thank you Will, but this is not entirely correct, see here and here, where RTF or WMF is beautifully pasted as rich text or vector data, respectively.

And it still works in the portable Editor, only not anymore in the installed version all of a sudden.

Please advise!

Best regards
David.P

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi David,

I suspect that what you are seeing is actually pasted as a stamp, rather than text. Can you check the properties of the pasted item in your first image, to see?

The way that the Editor pastes will differ depending on the app that you copied the data from. In my experience, after copying text from most applications, text is pasted as a textbox that uses the default settings of the textbox tool. It appears that, from Outlook, text-data is pasted as a stamp. This is because data can be copied to the clipboard in several formats at once and it is up to the application handling the pasting, to choose which format to use when pasting the data. In our case (I'm not 100% sure why), we choose EMF from Outlook. One of the Devs. here agrees that this isn't the best idea and is why we plan to offer the extended paste options.

Please do try my previous suggested workaround, it should work for you until the new paste options are implemented.

Cheers,

[David.P]

Yes Will, probably the formula in the first link had been pasted as a stamp, can't check that at the moment.

However the text from Outlook or Word definitely always was pasted directly as (editable) rich text, and still is so in the portable version:



Strangely however, the installed version:


...does not do it anymore as from today, but instead pastes only pure text.

But thank you anyway for the workaround which actually works very well. Just in case, please note that it is my opinion that the previous behavior should not be changed, i.e. direct pasting of rich text should be kept the way it is, and possibly extended as described here, because it is incredibly useful for quickly transferring pages of formatted text from other programs like Outlook or Word into an existing PDF document.

Best regards
David

[David.P]

Phew -- I did a repair install, and sure enough PDF-XChange Editor now beautifully pastes RTF text as stamp again, which can be fully edited after flattening.

So the problem is resolved for the moment.

Cheers
David

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi David,

Firstly: I wasn't actually aware that this happened when flattening the pasted stamp. That's awesome, so thanks for the that!

Secondly: great, glad that you solved the problem!

[David.P]

Hi all,

I was just going to [say] how fantastic it already is to be able to add pages using Rich Text via clipboard into a PDF document with PDF-XChange Editor [...]

This way, it takes only seconds to add new external content to an electronic file PDF document.

This is already stunning in my view. If, as it is the subject of the present thread, this could be extended in order to be able to also paste content that is longer than one page, this would add another one to the already many unique features that make PDF-XChange Editor stand out.

I just wanted to quickly but highly praise the newly added feature to insert multiple pages of Rich Text by simply pasting clipboard contents into the Thumbnails Pane (HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!!)

PDF-XChange Editor and Tools Build 337: New Features:
Ability to Paste text, rtf and images as new pages in document (via Thumbnails pane)

This way, for example, it is possible to paste formatted text (including tables, images etc.) directly from Word or Outlook into a PDF file, even when the text in the clipboard spans multiple pages!

This is another feature of PDF-XChange Editor that leaves me in awe (and the competition in the dust).

Thanks and keep up the great work
Best regards
David

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello David.P,

Many thanks for the kind words! Greatly appreciated!

Kind regards,
Stefan