Need advice on copying expansion sentences in new format.
wei1xiao4
June 03, 2008, 03:00 AM posted in General DiscussionIn this new format, I no longer seem to be able to copy the expansion sentences into a word document. In the past I could highlight the whole expansion exercise, copy it, and paste it into a word document so I could print it out. Now I seem to only be able to copy/paste sentence by sentence and the large vocabulary word that appears in red will not paste at all. Am I doing something wrong? I know it is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks, but there has to be an easier way to do this. I am using a Macbook, if that has anything to do with it. I always copy the expansion sentences, write in the pinyin, make notes of new vocabulary or sentence structure questions to ask Vera. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Thanks for your help.
dancupid
June 28, 2008, 05:05 PMThe easy way to copy and paste is to do it from the lyrics part of the mp3 tag rather than from the pdf. From iTunes right click the lesson or dialogue and choose 'get info' then choose the Lyrics tab. The whole dialogue should then appear and can easily be copied.
henning
June 04, 2008, 04:38 AMwei1xiao4,
in the Edit-menu in MS Word you find a function "Paste Special". There you can select to only paste Unformatted Unicode text.
This works well for me (embedded objects are gone and so are any colors or strange formatting). Afterwards you just might want to erase the lines with the links if they bother you, maybe with a simple macro.
memmifer
June 05, 2008, 03:54 AMOnce you've followed henning's advice, in Word, you can get rid of the link lines by doing a Find & Replace All using "►*.mp30" for the Find what string, and leave the Replace with field blank. I had to make sure the checkbox for Use Wildcards was checked.
Hopefully this transfers to a Mac.
mikeinewshot
June 05, 2008, 09:58 AMThanks Memmifer - I was deleting the lines manually!
wei1xiao4
June 06, 2008, 03:13 AMThanks for your suggestions. I am really not very knowledgeable about computers, but I had my son working on this problem based on your input and we still can't seem to make it work. I try copying it by highlighting the page, but nothing shows up to be pasted when I go to the edit menu. Maybe someone could take me step by step through what I should be doing. Sorry to be so dense. I really appreciate your help.
wei1xiao4
June 04, 2008, 12:45 AMPlease, Chinesepod, I know you have a lot on your plate right now. But could you look into this when you have time. This is a major study tool for me. And copying and pasting by individual sentence is a drag. Thanks.
RJ
June 06, 2008, 03:36 AMYou also can while viewing the web page, go to the top and choose "file", then "print". It will print the entire web page in the same html format. Its not an editable word doc, but you will have a printed copy of the page to reference.
wei1xiao4
June 07, 2008, 06:54 AMrjberki, thanks for your step by step, you are always so kind to me. But of course that is standard procedure and that is what I have been doing and it will not copy. After I highlight and copy, there is nothing in my edit menu to paste: no paste,no paste from scrapbook,no paste special,no paste as Hyperlink, none of that works. I am using a Mac, but I am trying to copy the expansions sentences into a word document. What's wrong? I could always do this before and then edit the word program. Now I can't paste unless it is line by line. Until I figure this out, I have been doing as you suggested and I have been printing the whole page out, but this doesn't allow me to edit the material. I'm sorry to keep asking the same thing over and over, but it must have something to do with the new format because I never had this problem before now. Some of the Chinesepod technicians must know how to overcome this problem. Can one of you techies please look into this for me? I would really appreciate your help.
lostinasia
June 07, 2008, 09:32 AMwei1xiao4, on my Mac I actually use TextEdit for ChinesePod material, not MS Word - for some reason there seem to be fewer formatting issues, although of course the application itself is far less powerful. TextEdit works OK for me, it's a heck of a lot faster, and it has fewer "What the ???" moments when formatting suddenly goes haywire.
Are you getting results like this? (All copying is from the Expansion page):
- Copy from Firefox, paste into Word: nothing appears. "Paste" is even grayed out on the Edit menu. It sounds like this is the problem you're having. The following comment will not be helpful: I have absolutely no idea why this is happening!
- Copy from Safari, paste into Word: seems to paste OK, although there's invisible odd things happening where I suppose MP3 coding has been pasted in.
- Copy from Firefox, paste into TextEdit: sentences appear, along with really messy coding - i.e. the full http link for the MP3.
- Copy from Safari, paste into TextEdit: sentences appear properly, with a visible black triangle and some odd tabs that I presume are an MP3 coding legacy.
An ugly workaround: if I copy from Firefox into Stickies, and then copy from the Stickies into Word, it works OK.
Hypothesis: the traditional plug-in may be involved with this. When I use Firefox 3, which doesn't have the traditional plug-in, I seem able to paste OK. The MP3 coding is there, but at least it'll paste.
Somewhat off-topic: You may be typing in the pinyin yourself for study purposes, but if you're looking for shortcuts these are two sites that can help give you the pinyin (although the second seems to be down as I write this):
http://www.chinesetopinyin.com/
(Amazing how when I'm supposed to be preparing and marking final exams, I find lots of time to spend on the ChinesePod forum...)
RJ
June 07, 2008, 10:05 PMSorry weixiao, I am MAC illiterate. I was hoping it was similar. Lets hope they get it fixed. An expasion pdf may not be a bad idea either.
RJ
RJ
June 06, 2008, 03:31 AM1.open word
2.go to expansion page and highlight all sentences
3. Hit edit, then copy or just hit cntrl C
4. go to word document and place cursor there at the top.
5. Hit edit and choose paste special
6. choose Unformatted Unicode text - the sentences will appear on the word doc.
there will be extra lines of text containing links that you can erase manually. If you get this far we can then help you with memmifers suggestion to eliminate these all at once. I hope this translates to a mac. If not perhaps a mac user can help you.
good luck
RJ
June 03, 2008, 03:32 AMyou can just hit file print while viewing the expansion page and print the entire page. You would have to write in the pinyin by hand however in this case but it gives you a reference hard copy. I dont know if that helps but you are right, I have to copy paste one line at a time along with its english translation. The sound icons seem to interfere with a clean paste.