Add Mathcad sheets to Microsoft Word

[netoprax]

I am looking for a straightforward way to add my mathcad sheet to word. The solutions I found online haven't been working well or are not very practical considering I have over 200 pages on mathcad

maybe someone knows an alternative that works for my case

what I have tried so far is:

1. Copy Paste with Keep Source Formatting:

Does not respect page margins, even if I copy and paste page by page with both Mathcad and word with the same page size and margins:

2 Copy Paste with Merge Formatting:

this happens when there is math inside a textbox, which happens often:

it is like they are all superscripted, it looks odd

3 Print to PDF and add to word: doesn't work because word only adds the first page of the PDF

4 Snip every single page and add one by one: works but it would take too long. Also there might be a chance I will have to update my mathcad calculations and redo this process, making it very time consuming

same for: creating a PDF of every single page separately and add each one on word. this likely could be scripted on word but I don't know how to code that

what other options do I have? thanks!

[terryhendicott]

Hi,

Save As the Mathcad to rich text format *.rtf.

Microsoft word can open the rtf format.

Cheers

Terry

[netoprax]

I just tried the RTF and for some reason it creates some page breaks at weird locations, and when I try to delete them, this happens:

a huge blank space I cannot delete

any advice on how to fix this? thanks

[netoprax]

if there is a way to get rid of these page breaks, this solution can actually be good

the issue I have now is that for some reason I have some spots with page breaks resulting in One or Two blank pages, and when i try to delete the page breaks, a lot of stuff moves around.

[terryhendicott]

Hi,

Hard to diagnose what the problem is without the worksheet.

Can you upload it?

Cheers Terry

[netoprax]

I cannot upload this worksheet as it contain sensitive/protected information
I modified it to hide some info but I still think I should not attach it, just in case.

Even in this modified shorter one I do still get text going over the margins of the paper

Is there any other alternative I can try that you can think of?

thank you!

[terryhendicott]

Understand no upload of sheet because it contains sensitive/protected data.

Can only suggest the following.

Check paper size in worksheet and word document.

Check margin sizes in worksheet and word document.  Margins from the worksheet are not transffered to rtf.

Check if inserted any page breaks in worksheet as this will influence word document?

Is grid in worksheet standard or fine this influences setout?

Cheers

Terry

[netoprax]

I dont use page breaks in mathcad

I am using a fine grid, is that an issue?

[netoprax]

I figured out why I am getting blank spaces/ page breaks

it is because I have stuff outside the page in the mathcad file

they still dont show in the RTF file but it creates those blank spaces

I cannot remove them and I dont want to show in the printed file

any advice on what to do?

[Werner_E]

You may hide them in a collapsed area (the expressions still may be on the far right if you like).

You can uncheck "Show Area Border" and that way no horizontal line wold be shown where the area is hidden.

In Print the collapsed area is completely invisible, in Prime all you see is the tiny "+" symbol to the left of the left border.

[netoprax]

I am going to try this but in the meantime I do have a related question:

is there a way to automatically selected everything below a certain point of the mathcad file for when I need to add stuff between existing lines?

I constantly see myself having to select the whole content of my document all the way to the end and then drag stuff down line by line to add more stuff in between

I can certainly see how collapsible areas can help with this, but if the areas are too long, or if there are many collapsible areas, the issue is the same

any advice? thanks!

[terryhendicott]

Hi,

is there a way to automatically selected everything below a certain point of the Mathcad file for when I need to add stuff between existing lines?

Just put the crosshair pointer where you want space and press return the rest of the document moves down without needing to select anything.  More returns more space.

Cheers

Terry

[netoprax]

where is the return button, or even better does it have a keyboard shortcut? thanks!

[Werner_E]

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@netoprax wrote:

where is the return button, or even better does it have a keyboard shortcut? thanks!

---

I guess Terry was referring to the Enter key on your keyboard which inserts space/new line in your worksheet.

And if your intention is really just to create space in the middle of the document, then this is certainly much more practical than moving everything else down.
The behavior here is similar to that in any word processor where the rest of the text also moves down when you insert a new paragraph by pressing 'Enter'.

If, for other reasons, it is still important to you to select all regions from a certain region onwards, this is not very easy to do in Prime. In general, selecting expressions and partial expressions (including elements of a larger matrix) is tricky, and as copy & paste poorly and inadequately implemented, and it appears that PTC is not making any effort to fix or at least improve this in any way.

The only reasonably useful way to select all regions from a specific one to the last is to click on the first region, press and hold the Shift key, then scroll to the last region (preferably with the mouse wheel, as using the keyboard is a bit of a gamble) and click on the last region again. This also selects all regions in between. However, scrolling with the mouse wheel can be very tedious with long documents. After selecting the first region and pressing the Shift key, you can try pressing Ctrl and End to jump to the end of the file. However, this has not always worked for me - not sure why.

See Selecting One or More Regions

[netoprax]

while this solution does help I am still getting all sorts of weird stuff in the RTF file

1. text with font size 8-9 are displayed in a size way too small. I can stretch the figures but I would to do so manually, one by one

2. figures that are placed beside a text box goes to a weird location, sometimes even pictures that are perfectly underneath and above text boxes, goes to the next page, to an unexpected spot

3. sometimes there is still a large blank space where there is apparently nothing in the mathcad file to explain it

the RTF solution really does not work for me

is there any other solution I can try to put my mathcad files into word and make it look like it's on mathcad?

[Werner_E]

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is there any other solution I can try to put my mathcad files into word and make it look like it's on mathcad?

---

Can't comment on the undesired effects you experience without seeing the Prime sheet along with the RTF output.

The only 'official' way for converting a Prime sheet into something word can handle seems to be the RTF export.

And, well, I can't think of any alternative that I would consider even remotely practical.

Of course, you can take screenshots of entire pages of the Prime document and insert them individually into Word (the reduction in size that is necessary due to the page margins in Word is perhaps acceptable).
Creating the individual page images can possibly be automated by using a screenshot program such as SnagIt, but inserting the individual images into Word is probably more difficult, perhaps with a script?

You may also print to pdf  and I guess there is software which converts a pdf file pagewise into pictures.

If you have the full Acrobat or something comparable you may also try to print to pdf first and then use the pdf to word (or pdf to rtf) converter and see if the result meets your requirements.

And if the RTF output built into Prime is insufficient, you are of course free to inform official PTC Support and open a support case in which you list the deficiencies one by one. Perhaps this will help and there will be an improvement in one of the future program versions.We may still hope...