Forum Discussion
Pasting text from Word
I've noticed an intermittent problem with Storyline 2 when I paste text from Word into a text box. Sometimes it pastes the same text three or four times. This happens consistently with each paste of that particular text i.e. if I delete it and repaste I get the same result - multiple copies. If I paste the same clipboard contents into another program like Notepad I only get a single copy.
In Storyline it makes no difference whether I use the Edit menu or Ctrl-V. It seems to make no difference whether it's a paragraph or a single word. And it's intermittent - maybe 1 in 20 pastes. I'm sure I've ruled out user error - twitchy finger. I can easily get round it by pasting the offending text into Notepad and copying and pasting it from there to Storyline.
Is this a known issue?
29 Replies
Thank you.
This still happens with the 'keep text only' option.
Hi Marc,
This thread is a bit older, so could you share a bit more about what's happening for you? I haven't seen text pasted and duplicated in 2-3 times, so I'd want to know a bit more about how you're able to replicate it. Also, have you confirmed there isn't extra text/formatting that is being picked up? You could try by pasting it into Notepad first and then copying/pasting from there into Storyline.
Here's what happens when I copy and paste from Word to Storyline 3 - it pastes it 3 times consistently. Our Storyboard (content) is in Word, and even if I choose "Keep text only" this happens. I hope there is a better way to make this not happen then taking each item into Notepad as I have a 26 pages of content.
Hi Laura,
I am unable to recreate this behavior.
What version of Word are you using?
Curious if the issue happens in any course you are working on or just this particular one?
If you cannot re-create the issue in a new course, I would advise to import the file into a new one and proceed.
If it's happening in any/all files, you should certainly conduct a repair of your software.
I consistently experience this issue as well. I'm using Articulate Storyline 360 and the latest version of Microsoft Word.
It happens across all projects, every time, regardless of whether I paste "text only".
Edit: Also, I've installed Storyline on two different machines, one brand new, and the problem persists.
Hi John,
I'm sorry you've run into the same issue, as Laura and a few others, and I don't see that our team has been able to replicate it yet. Could you walk me through exactly what you're doing by taking a Peek of the problem? That way I can follow your steps to replicate it and continue troubleshooting from there.
It'll also help to know anything else about your file, such as where you're storing the .doc and the .story file?
Thanks for the reply.
I've narrowed down the issue a bit -- it only occurs when pasting *from a
table* in Microsoft Word. If it's just normal text in a word doc, or even
if I just highlight the text rather than the full cell, it will paste
normally.But if you select the entire cell (unfortunately, happens kind of by
default in Word), then it will paste multiple copies of the text.It's frustrating but I can work around it. Just unfortunate my client uses
this table format for scripts.Thanks for the helpful update, John! I'm sorry it's a bit of a speedbump for you, but I'm sure this info will help others who are finding the same behavior when pasting table text from Word.
I have noticed this for years and still haven't figured out a work-around. Terribly inconvenient today specifically since I need to copy 4 tables from word into tables in storyline. I have 324 cells that I have to copy/paste individually because word and SL don't communicate well with tables. :'(
Anyone have suggestions?
Hi Erin,
What version of Storyline are you using? We added a tables feature to the latest version as noted here (also a part of Storyline 3). So you can copy/paste tables or import them from another source such as Powerpoint.
Hi Ashley,
I'm using SL3 and use tables when I need to when building courses.
My IDs use Word to write courses. So, if a table needs to be in a course I have to take extra steps to build it properly in SL regardless of the program. I will say, however, I did not know about importing a table from PPT. Still an annoyance, but I would have rather that process than copy/paste every single cell.
See below for screenshots of how the text copies over from Word and Excel.
Below is an example of 1 of the original tables I need to have in SL which was created in Word.
Here is how the table pastes from Word. No table is brought over in the process and the text duplicates.
Example below is how it pastes from Excel. While this is much cleaner, the table did not paste and there are many tabs and extra spaces.
