Moving Numbers Charts into Word

Question

Level 1

8 points

Moving Numbers Charts into Word

I am having trouble exporting charts I make in Numbers to Word (which I need to use for my dissertation). Right now, every time I do this Word (2004) imports the chart as a picture with a black background (making it virtually impossible to read).

My question is whether there is an easy solution to this problem.

I have seen one post in this forum that suggests Apple has a work around. It says that Apple has "solved" this transparency problem. But I see no mention of how or how to apply it. All of my software is updated.

I have also seen the post that describes the long work around (export to a third application like photoshop and then import into word), but I don't consider that a real solution.

Any ideas?

macbook pro, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Apr 12, 2008 11:29 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Ric Donato

Level 4

1,129 points

Apr 12, 2008 6:22 PM in response to MBNelson

Hi MBNelson,
Welcome to Numbers discussions.

Here's a quick way to do it works every time. Do a screen shot of the chart then drag it into Word.

Here's how:
1. Key combination: Shift > Cmd > 4
2. Highlight the chart. When you lift up the mouse a Picture1.png file appears on your desktop (of course if you have other PictureX.png files on your desktop it will be numbered sequentially).
3. Drag that Picture1.png onto your MS Word 2004 document.

Hope this helps you as it is what I do in similar situations as you.

Sincerely,
RicD

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 23, 2008 3:25 AM in response to MBNelson

This is a workaround - very far from ideal but better than the pure screengrab method:

Open keynote; draw a nice big shape; fill it white or with some other colour - mb a border
Import your chart from numbers, put it on top of the shape
Save by export > png
Include this png into your word doc.

Rubbish I know and a bad position to have found yourself in - very surprised someone hasn't pointed you out a proper fix but good luck

Reply

Answer 3

bonesb

Level 1

100 points

Apr 23, 2008 8:46 AM in response to MBNelson

My workaround solution to get Numbers charts into Word 2004 and 2008 is to place the subject chart(s) onto one or more sheets - I tend to put each chart on a separate sheet - then export the charts as PDF files, set for "Best Quality" and to the "Current Sheet". I then generally drag each individual PDF into Word and adjust as necessary for scale and position.

I'll admit that IMO Word 2004's graphics engine really wasn't (Isn't?) consistent or that great at handling non-native graphics, and I've encountered the black picture syndrome dozens of times, and just try reimporting until I get what I want. I've also used Apple's Preview application (via Automator) to generate TIFF and JPG files of the PDFs I generate, and almost all of the time one of the resulting files gets me what I need.

One last method of shoehorning an image into either Word application that's worked wonders for me since Word 2001 is to choose the graphics element you want to get into Word and copy-paste it into Word, letting the Clipboard handle the translation; I've used this technique just this morning to get two graphs (a copied one-page PDF from Preview and a small chart from Numbers) into Word as graphics, albeit into Word 2008 - the finished product was exactly as I'd expected.

One last option is to copy your elements, one at a time, to the Clipboard, and to use the Word "Paste Special" command, choosing the "as Picture" option; the pasted elements likely will look a little fuzzy, but they're in your document.

Good luck - I hope my offering helps, and if a more direct method were available, I'd love to know what the better solution is!

Reply