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Mat_3-Newcomer
3-Newcomer
January 31, 2023
Question

Mathcad Prime 8.0 Formatting to Word

  • January 31, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 1642 views

Hey all, 

 

I am a structural engineer, specifically in the facade industry working with the exterior of buildings such as hospitals, labs, schools, high rise commercial and residential buildings. Our team has been using Mathcad 15 for 10+ years and sadly now moving over to Prime 8.0 and are at roadblock when it comes to integrating our mathcad calculations within Word in an efficient manner. 

 

Our process with 15 involved creating a macro in Word so that you can paste special a bitmap and so our mathcad pages are formatted to fit exactly in our report template in word to fit the margins perfectly without distorting or blurring the text (if you try pasting something larger than the margins, scaling can begin to affect the visual/readability of the calcs). 

 

Unfortunately, in Prime 8.0 this same copy paste function doesn't produce a paste as bitmap option but only paste as Formatted Text (RTF). You CAN paste the content of the sheet but not as a big object or picture but individual text and small pictures of calculations so calculations or text can get pushed off to the next pages which just results in double the formatting time: time spent formatting a mathcad sheet and then again in word. The other option for us is to print to PDF and then snipping the pages into word from there but this is an extra step that can cause scaling issues and not the best readability + this doesn't allow for quick solves of even simple typos in text because you have to go back into mathcad, print, and then copy paste all over again. I know this sounds trivial but if it takes 15 seconds to fix a typo and get it back into a word document using Mathcad 15 and conversely on Prime 8.0 it could take up to 45 seconds to 1 minute-- this is inefficiency is frustrating when in the middle of 600-page report and in my opinion disturbs the work momentum. 

 

I am curious if there are others out there that have similar issues with Prime 8.0 and if you found a better process/ solution / work around. Genuinely interested in how others create calculation reports using Prime 8.0 so open to all suggestions and recommendations.

 

Thanks in advance everyone!

 

1 reply

L
LucMeekes23-Emerald IV
23-Emerald IV
January 31, 2023

If you can live with the Prime sheet background in your word document:

Copy the Prime window as a bitmap, with [Alt-PrtSc] (That is, clicking once in the Prime window, to get its focus, then pressing the Alt key down and while that is down hitting the PrtSc key).

Now paste that in MsPaint and select the part you need. Copy that and paste it in your Word document.

Done,

 

Yes, it's a two-step process, but it gets the Prime contents as shown on screen without modifications into Word. All within 10 seconds.

If you make sure that the Prime sheet fits your standard word page, you don't need to scale afterwards.

 

Success!
L:uc

M
Mat_3-NewcomerAuthor
3-Newcomer
January 31, 2023

Hi Luc, 

 

Thanks for the reply! This is an interesting solution, but what is the difference between this method and just using the snipping tool or greenshot to take snapshot directly from the mathcad sheet? That prime background color is a tough pill to swallow but the human factor of snipping free hand would be the more annoying issue where scrolling page to page there might be inconsistent heights and widths + the difference in color would make it very obvious. 

 

I was playing around with text blocks that include math regions and something interesting happens in Word when you paste using 1 text block vs 2 text blocks: using 1 text block and then copying and pasting directly into word results in the multiple little pictures but when you copy 2 or more text blocks, each text block becomes a "frame" in Word and maintains the format of the mathcad sheet pretty well although can be manipulated in word still. I'm thinking that creating a full page of calculations using one large text block and one small "dummy" text block at the bottom that would be deleted once in word could be a possible solution. Not perfect though because you still have to format the frame so that text doesn't wrap around or else things get wonky with the text from Word originally. 

 

Thanks again,

Mat

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