Pasting tables into Windows Live Writer

Windows Live Writer is the best blogging software period.  End of story. 

The only thing that I have not been able to figure out in the past was how to paste tables into WLW.  I would start out with a nice table in Excel, just like the following:

However, after pasting into Windows Live Writer, all of the table and formatting would be gone, like this:

Very frustrating!  Fortunately, I learned the solution from one of the WLW Devs today...

You can use ‘Paste Special’ to get this done if you’d like- just copy from Excel and use Crl+Shift+V (or edit>Paste Special) and choose ‘keep formatting’. Our default html handling currently strips tables since pasting from web pages so often includes tables for layout.

Why didn't I think of that?! When you hit Ctrl-Shift-V, you get the following dialogue box.

Choose "Keep Formatting", and VOILA!  You have a nice table in your blog post.  Huzzah!

Electrical and appliances	Inspection
Heating and cooling systems	Clean and replace filters if necessary.
Kitchen exhaust fan	Remove and clean the filter. Clean accumulated grease deposits from the fan housing.
Refrigerator	Clean dust from top. Clean refrigerator drain pan. Clean and defrost freezer if necessary.
Dishwasher	Check for leaks.
Wiring, electrical cords, and plugs	Check for wear or damage. Replace if necessary.
Smoke detector	Test for proper operation and replace batteries if necessary.
GFI outlets	Test for proper operation.

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 29, 2010
  JUST what I was looking for. I was trying to create tables in WLW and getting frustrated. I'm going to go create them somewhere else and paste them in. :) Thanks for the tip!

• Anonymous
  June 16, 2015
  The comment has been removed