Jumbled, weird text

[johnmendelssohn]

I'm trying to copy text from Word into PS, as I've done around 45 million times in the years I've been using PS. Some of the text is overlaid on other bits. The leading is completely inconsistent. When I backspace after a big gap has been left another big gap results.

I thought Word might be the problem. I saved the text as Text. No improvement. I thought maybe something had been corrupted in the application, so I uninstalled it, and then installed a newer version of Photoshop. Exact same problem. Absolutely maddening!

My kingdom for a solution!

 

[JeffK]

Been playing with this a bit and I can paste copied Word text directly into Photoshop. But then it can't be altered in any way, ie font, color, font size, etc.

Try this:

Here's a sample I created in Word and copied all text - Ctrl + C



Now I opened a blank PS document:



Using the Type tool, I created a text box (don't click on the document - just choose your tool and then draw a text box).
Don't worry about the fake fill text:



Now, while the text box is active, paste your text into the box - Ctrl+V:



Click on the check mark in the top menu bar and now you've got text you style any way you want:

 

[MrToM]

I don't have a need to use MS Word so can't try this directly but PS does have a 'Paste Without Formatting' option which may help?

You can find it buried under:
Edit > Paste Special > Paste without Formatting

Regards.
MrToM.

 

[johnmendelssohn]

Been playing with this a bit and I can paste copied Word text directly into Photoshop. But then it can't be altered in any way, ie font, color, font size, etc.

Try this:

Here's a sample I created in Word and copied all text - Ctrl + C

View attachment 137729

Now I opened a blank PS document:

View attachment 137731

Using the Type tool, I created a text box (don't click on the document - just choose your tool and then draw a text box).
Don't worry about the fake fill text:

View attachment 137732

Now, while the text box is active, paste your text into the box - Ctrl+V:

View attachment 137734

Click on the check mark in the top menu bar and now you've got text you style any way you want:

View attachment 137735

View attachment 137736

Thank you gigantically! God, what a relief. I've been using PS quite happily since 1991 without ever once needing to click a "commit" icon. Can't thank you enough!

 

[johnmendelssohn]

I don't have a need to use MS Word so can't try this directly but PS does have a 'Paste Without Formatting' option which may help?

You can find it buried under:
Edit > Paste Special > Paste without Formatting

Regards.
MrToM.

Thanks very much for your suggestion!

 

[polarwoc]

My kingdom for a solution!

Now, I am wondering whether @JeffK got your kingdom or @MrToM?

 

[johnmendelssohn]

Thank you gigantically! God, what a relief. I've been using PS quite happily since 1991 without ever once needing to click a "commit" icon. Can't thank you enough!

I spoke too soon. It's still a disaster. The hard returns in the RTF text don't work properly, and when text appears far above where it's supposed to (that is,when it appears superimposed on other text), my pressing RETURN, which would ordinarily make the text after the cursor descend, it actual AScends! This is a nightmare.

Thanks very much for your suggestion!

I don't have a need to use MS Word so can't try this directly but PS does have a 'Paste Without Formatting' option which may help?

You can find it buried under:
Edit > Paste Special > Paste without Formatting

Regards.
MrToM.

Thank you for your suggestion, but it didn't work. I have tried exporting from both Pages and Word, without luck. I have also converted the text into Plain Text, and that didn't work either. The impored text still look as though in the image below, and resists being correctd; when I try to lower a bit of text that's too high using RETURN, the text actually goes up!

Now, I am wondering whether @JeffK got your kingdom or @MrToM?

My kingdom remains up for grabs, as the problem persists. Don't let this opportunity slip away, Polar!

 

[polarwoc]

1) I hope you tried the suggestion from Mr Tom to Paste Without Formatting.
2) Try pasting that same text in a Notepad, then copy all text from there and then paste it in PS.
3) If that too fails, please paste a screenshot of your Character Controls. If you do not see it, it may have to be enabled under Window > Character.

Let us know.

 

[johnmendelssohn]

I did try Mr. Tom's suggestion. No luck. Not sure what you mean by a notepad. (Never used one, to my knowledge.) Wouldn't converting the text to Plain Text or RTF have the same effect. I will indeed try your suggestion, which I very much appreciate.

 

[JeffK]

Tried again with RTF format but couldn't duplicate the error..
What about just enter your text in your document, don't format it, then try copy and paste (or paste into text box) and format in Photoshop?

@thebestcpu - opinion?

 

[polarwoc]

I am beginning to think that your Character window's old settings are causing the jumble. Specifically, portions of text have a Leading setting set to a higher number than the rest.
Select all the text in Photoshop, open the Character Panel, click on the Four lines icon on top Right, click on "Reset Character".

Then, format freshly as needed.

 

[thebestcpu]

I did try Mr. Tom's suggestion. No luck. Not sure what you mean by a notepad. (Never used one, to my knowledge.) Wouldn't converting the text to Plain Text or RTF have the same effect. I will indeed try your suggestion, which I very much appreciate.

Hi @johnmendelssohn

Lots of good advice already given so was hesitating to provide yet another approach/angle.
I am going to provide a couple approaches yet if you don't want any formatting moved from Word to Photoshop I recommend the second option I will share.

First Approach
If you save to PDF in Word you can then use the File > Place Embedded into Photoshop and you should have a very close match to the original fomatting in Word on display. There is good news and bad news though. The good news, is if you want to edit the PDF, you just open the embedded Smart Object and It will open in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat depending on which you have on your computer. You can then edit the PDF file from that application. That is also the bad news as I have never found editing in Adobe Acrobat to be very easy (at least for me). Yet this is one way to get almost exactly what you saw in Word to be moved into Photoshop.

Second Approach
First do note the a .txt file and .rtf file are not the same. A .rtf file has lots of formatting embedded in it.
This second approach is along the same lines as other posts in removing as much formatting as possible when you copy and paste.
I also make the assumption that the formatting in Word does not does not easy move to Photoshop and best to remove all the formatting in Word first and then with the Text Tool in Photoshop, make sure all settings have been reset before doing the cut and paste.

I will show the step by steps here with cut and paste visuals:

I did a cut of text on a travel web site and pasted it into Word:

From within Word, I selected this text and from the Home Page of Work and click on the Clear all Formatting icon. I have pointed out the icons on this next image as well as the result of removing all formatting:




You can now copy the text in Word to the clipboard (or do so after you have set up Photoshop properly as shown below)

In Photoshop, select the Text Tool. First reset the Character panel settings:



And then reset the paragraph panel settings:



Now with the Character and Paragraphs panels reset, using the Text Tool (type "T") drag and area on your document where want the text to appear.
Then set the desired font type and font size.

If you have not already copied the unformatted Text in Word, do so now and then paste it into the Text Box you just drew. When I did that (with alignment of charcters to be in the center) this is the end result:



It these steps do not work for you, I recommend that you provide a link to the Word file that is giving you trouble so Forum members can try and reproduce the same issue.
Hope this is helpful
John Wheeler