Bringing
Text from a word processor into MicroSurvey
One
question I get a lot is "Can I bring text from Word
or WordPerfect into MicroSurvey without having to do retype
it?" The answer is Yes.
We
support a couple of different methods:
A)
Using the TEXT command:
- Go
into your Windows based word processor. Open the file
up that has the text you need to copy.
- Next
you need to highlight all the text desired. To do this
you need to use your mouse. Start at the top, pick and
hold the left button down on the mouse - then, while holding
the button down, drag the cursor over all the text to
be copied. This should highlight the text.
- Now
release the button on the mouse and hit the following
two keys on the keyboard. Be sure to press both the keys
at the same time. Press <CTRL> and <C>. This
will copy the highlighted text into a temporary clipboard.
You do not need to see the clipboard so don't worry about
where it is.
- You
can now minimize your word processor and start MicroSurvey.
- Once
you have the survey job up on the screen, you can start
the text command from which ever location you are comfortable
with. The text command will bring up a dialogue box where
you can type in text for placement on the screen.
- Instead
of you typing text you need to copy the text from the
clipboard into this dialogue box. To do this, while the
dialogue box is on screen, press the following two keys
at the same time, <CTRL> and <V>. You should
immediately see the text in the dialogue box that you
originally had in your word processor.
- Now
you can place the text the same way you do with any other
text you have entered in your plans before.
NOTE:
Make sure you have hit the Enter key at the end of each
line in your word processor. This way each line is separate
and will be on a new line in the TEXT command. If you do
not press Enter at the end of each line then your text will
be one long line and you may not see it all on screen and
it will extend out of your drawing.
Keep
in mind that any formatting that you may have had in the
word processor will not be supported in our products and
the text will take on the size and format of the font currently
in use or selected.
You
can do this process from any Windows word processor that
supports copying information to the clipboard (most do).
Other objects that may be copied to a clipboard, such as
graphics, are not supported in MicroSurvey.
If
your word processor does not support the copy to clipboard
method or your processor is an old DOS based program, then
see if you can save the text in a pure TEXT format. We can
then load this text file up in Windows Notepad and follow
the procedure above, or use the MTEXT command mentioned
below.
B)
Using the MTEXT command:
The
MTEXT command will allow you to paste text into it just
like the TEXT command mentioned above. But it also has
a button marked as IMPORT that permits you to Browse for
a TXT file to read in directly. This means that you do
not have to copy/paste the text from another program, you
need only import an existing TXT file directly.
NOTE:
MTEXT will place the text into the window chosen, when you
started the command, and will wrap to fit the window.
This
copying to clipboard can be done from many other programs
as well. We can even copy text from our own program - be
it from the VIEWLOG file or our Active Drawing Technology
window. Any Windows program that allows the copy to clipboard
should work. As long as the text is highlighted and you
press <CTRL> <C>, it will place it on the clipboard
and allow us to copy it into the text command in MicroSurvey.
Other programs such as Excel will allow the same thing.
Experiment a bit - you may surprise yourself with the benefits.
I
hope this helps.
Glen
Cameron
Technical
Support Manager
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