PUB: Updating Word Story Editing Adds Duplicate Object or Table (135340)

SYMPTOMS

If you use Word Story Editing on a Publisher story and add graphics or tables to the story while it is in Word, each time you click Update on Word's File menu, you will get another copy of the graphics or tables in your publication.

Thus, if you edit a story in Word, add a table to the story while you are in Word, and click Update three times, when you exit and return to your publication, you will have four copies of the table. The copies will be stacked on top of each other, so it may not be immediately evident.

CAUSE

A Word document can consist of text, tables, inserted graphics, and OLE objects in a single data stream. Publisher has to place each of these different types of data in a different type of frame. When you click Update on Word's File menu, Word sends any new graphics, tables, or OLE objects back to Publisher, along with the text of the story. Publisher extracts the graphics, tables, and OLE objects and puts them into separate frames. The text in the story gets overwritten by the text that is coming back from Word, but because the graphics and tables are now no longer part of the text frame, they get duplicated, not overwritten.

RESOLUTION

If you want to add graphics or tables to your story while you are in Word but don't want duplicate copies, do the following:

In Publisher, click anywhere in a story, and click Edit Story In Word on the Edit menu.

Word starts with a copy of your story in it.
Add the graphics or tables that you want to add.
On the File menu in Word, click "Exit and Return to <Publication name>."

The new graphics or tables will be sent back to Publisher.
On the Edit menu in Publisher, click Edit Story.

You will now be back in Word.

The story will appear without the graphics and tables (they have been left back in Publisher), but you are now free to edit the text of the story and click Update as often as you want.