Expert: Amy - 3/4/2005

Question
Hi Amy,

One department creates artwork in Illustrator CS on Mac.  Another department using PCs needs to open an .ai file, select parts of the artwork, and paste them into an Excel spread sheet.  We assume Illustrator CS on PC is the proper tool to use.  The desired result would be the artwork, text, etc. within the selected area appearing in designated cell(s) in the spreadsheet.

What is the right process to do this?  So far when I've tried this the text that happens to be in the selected area will copy into the spreadsheet, but no image.  Please help.

Answer
Hello David.

Well, I used to do a lot of cross-platform cross-application cutting and pasting... it was always kludgey at best going from Adobe products to Microsoft products... surprise...

But why am I thinking you want the artwork to be locked into a single cell?  I don't think there's a way to do this... I will have to get back to you on this subject. My husband happens to be an Excel wiz, and he can't think of a way off hand.

As far as getting clipboard contents into Excel in general,
I think you're good up til the Excel part.

I think you should do a PASTE SPECIAL in Excel, not a simple paste.   There are two format choices in PASTE SPECIAL that will work for you.  Picture(Enhanced Metafile) and Bitmap.  Both have pros and cons.  Try them both and see which you like better based on your needs (transparency? printability? shrinkability? a combination?)

If you don't see these format options when choosing PASTE SPECIAL in Excel, you might need to go to
Preferences > Files and Clipboard
in Illustrator and examine the settings at the bottom there....AICB w/options or PDF...  these could both be valid choices depending on the characteristics of the artwork you're copying.

I hope this gives you the answer you wanted or at least points you in the right direction.

-Amy