Paste Special-Keep Formatting

English
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#1

I want to do something you haven’t considered before, but a trick genealogists use, to glean clues for their research.

I want to do a select all on a census index, copy, and then do a paste special into LibreCalc while keeping the original column format including fields that weren’t filled in.

I’ve seen them do it on YT videos using Google Sheets (I couldn’t get it to work on Google Sheets and I already have this suite). All they had to do is copy from the census page, paste special - keep formatting into the spreadsheet. Then you delete a few extraneous lines and you’re are on to the next page. The question is, how to paste it properly in LibreCalc?

sample census: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4204703_00405?pId=19599562
It should be able to be viewed without an account.

The index is on a horizontal bar along the bottom of the page. Just click inside that, select all and copy.

I am entering the data cell by cell right now. There has got to be a better way. All I get is one column of text, instead of 8-16.
Thanks

#2

Post the link you want to copy, its description is confused.

#3

The link is posted. see where it says sample…

#4

The census is an image. Someone made a text record of each page of that handwritten census. That’s the text I want.
The text in question is in the index within the horizontal bar at the bottom of the census image. If the horizontal bar is not showing click on the icon next to the highest page number and it will come up. Click near the text, select all, copy.
How do I properly paste that text into Calc, keeping the column format is my question.
Thanks

#5

The link you provided is diverted straight to a sign-up page. Your link is obviously something to do with 1850 United States Federal Census but I kept running into the pay wall.

Paste normally gives formatted text. For example if I copy Card Catalog I can paste it with Ctrl+V into Calc and retain the hyperlinks.

If you click Edit > Paste Special > Paste Special you will get a choice of different paste options. Using the Text Import dialog might be the one you need but I don’t quite understand what format you are looking at.

If you are using Opera browser there might be issues with pasting from it, in which case try another browser.

#6

I was afraid a paywall exists, but I thought since you can see them at any library, ancestry might allow it. If I find a census somewhere else, it may not have the text record I need. I knew ancestry had what I wanted, so I tried that first.

I understand it would be easier if you experienced what I am. Sorry for that. I wish you could try pasting this data for yourself.

Straight up paste does not give all the data on the census page. I get some links and a little text.
Of the options under Paste Special only one partially works, thus the title of the OP, and problem I am having. The best I can get is all the text in a single column. Its broken up into cells, but all column/row formatting is lost, and that ruins everything.

One work around might be…I remember in Excel that you could copy a series of cells that were in a column and paste them to a row format instead. Can I do that?

Here is a video of what I am trying to achieve. Sure looks easy. https://youtu.be/rnkuHyDZazs?t=364

#7

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Videos are boring, and some don’t like youtube (like myself).
Attach a little spreadsheet document showing side by side what you get in an example, and what you want. Descibe the exact proceeding by what you got the shown result.

…while keeping the original column format including fields that weren’t filled in.

Was the source something like a spreadsheet?, a html table? What else? (Please: Not another image. Tell.)

There are no “column formats” (Only the width is treated as if being one.) Formatting is per cell. You surely disabled the Formats option when pasting “special”? I don’t clearly understand the “…including fields that weren’t filled in.” What are your “fields”? Is “not filled in” concerning your sheet or the source?

#8

Filtering in Calc is standard,no problems there. Narrator said he had massaged those records into that shape, presumably by changing the layout of some of those records. Your issue is with getting to that stage so link is a bit of a red herring.

Transpose (paste rows as columns or vice versa) is in Paste Special.

#9

never mind. I’ll use someone’s else product

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