Officev 7

Users Guide
Microsoft Office
Importer
Import spreadsheet and word processing data into
MicroStation with perfect formatting!
Version 4.1
Axiom
1805 Drew Street
Clearwater, Florida 33765
1-727-442-7774 voice
1-727-442-8344 fax
Info@AxiomInt.com
www.AxiomInt.com
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Microsoft Office Importer
Copyright 19962008 Axiom.

All rights reserved.
This document was last modified on 16 October 2008 3:19 PM.
This software and manual are provided as is without warranty of any kind, either
expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and
performance of this program is with you. You are advised to test the program thoroughly
before you rely on it. Should the program prove defective, you (and not the seller nor
manufacturer) assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction. Any
liability of seller or manufacturer of this software will be limited exclusively to product
replacement or refund of the purchase price. Venue for the resolution of any dispute
related to the software described herein shall be Pinellas County, Florida, USA.
MicroStation is a registered trademark of Bentley Systems, Incorporated.

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
TrueType is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
Office Importer is a trademark of Axiom.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Overview ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9

Features of Microsoft Office Importer-------------------------------------------------------------9
Users Guide setup --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10
Definition of the word clipboard -------------------------------------------------------- 10
Chapter 2 Installation----------------------------------------------------------------------11
Before You Install ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11
Typical Installation from CD --------------------------------------------------------------------- 11
Congratulations------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17
Chapter 3 Uninstalling --------------------------------------------------------------------18

Uninstalling Axiom products --------------------------------------------------------------------- 18
Chapter 4 Quick Start ---------------------------------------------------------------------19

Quick Start Objectives----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
Prerequisites ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
Demonstration Version ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
Tutorial #1 Basics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 20
Tutorial #2 Paste a spreadsheet using default options ------------------------------------- 21
Tutorial #3 Adding or eliminating grid lines------------------------------------------------ 22
Tutorial #4 Pasting Word documents -------------------------------------------------------- 24
Pasting with TrueType fonts ---------------------------------------------------------------- 24
Pasting Word paragraphs as text nodes---------------------------------------------------- 28
Changing the width of the paste------------------------------------------------------------ 29
Tutorial #5 Importing with links ------------------------------------------------------------- 30
Tutorial #6 Pasting Excel charts into MicroStation---------------------------------------- 32
Chapter 5 Using Microsoft Office Importer ----------------------------------------34

Starting Microsoft Office Importer--------------------------------------------------------------- 34
Main tool box --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 34
Paste Excel data into MicroStation -------------------------------------------------------------- 35
Paste Excel charts into MicroStation ------------------------------------------------------------ 35
Manage import links ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 36
Display import link information------------------------------------------------------------------ 37
Microsoft Office Importer Settings--------------------------------------------------------------- 37
Chapter 6 Pasting clipboard data and Excel charts into MicroStation----38

The <Paste clipboard data into MicroStation> tool-------------------------------------------- 38
The Paste Excel data into MicroStation box ------------------------------------------------- 38
Page width: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 39
Width defined by text size on clipboard (Excel and Word)----------------------- 39
Define width while placing text (Word only)--------------------------------------- 40
Scale proportional to Excel (or Word) data ----------------------------------------- 40
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Text height and width ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 41

Text height:------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 41
Text width: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 41
Import with a link to the original document. --------------------------------------------- 41
Update automatically when design file opens. ------------------------------------------- 41
Import paragraphs as text nodes. (Some formatting may be lost.)--------------------- 42
The Paste Excel charts into MicroStation tool----------------------------------------------- 42
The Paste Excel charts into MicroStation dialog -------------------------------------- 42
Scale-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 43
Chapter 7 Managing Imported Links -------------------------------------------------44

The <Manage> button ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 44
The Manage Import Link box------------------------------------------------------------------ 45
<Apply> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 45
<Edit>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 45
<Close> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 45
The Link tab -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46
Source: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46
Update automatically when design file opens. ------------------------------------------- 46
<Unlink> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46
Excel Attributes------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46
Top Left Cell/Bottom Right Cell ----------------------------------------------------- 47
Sheet Name------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 47
The Symbology tab------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 47
Text--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 47
Color:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 47
Weight------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 47
Style: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 48
Level:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 48
When you do not select color, weight or level ---------------------------------------- 48
Take unselected settings from source document ----------------------------------- 48
Take unselected settings from active symbology ---------------------------------- 48
Borders----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 48
Additional information on working with linked data------------------------------------------ 49
Rotating or moving linked data------------------------------------------------------------- 49
Chapter 8 Import Link Information----------------------------------------------------50

The Info button ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 50
Chapter 9 Microsoft Office Importer Settings -------------------------------------51

The <Settings> button ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 51
Microsoft Office Importer Settings box --------------------------------------------------------- 51
File menu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 52
Saving your own settings-------------------------------------------------------------------- 52
Load Settings... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 53
Save Settings---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 53
Save Settings As...---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 53
Restore Factory Defaults ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 53
Help menu------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 53
Help | Contents... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 54
Table of Contents
Help | About...--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 54
Category --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 54
Currently active settings file name--------------------------------------------------------------- 54
Match ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 55
Information field ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 55
<OK> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 55
<Cancel> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 56
Chapter 10 Text Settings Category ---------------------------------------------------57

The Text settings box --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 57
The Font tab----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 58
Use same fonts as source document.------------------------------------------------------- 58
Set default font-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 58
Use active font -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 58
Advanced font mapping --------------------------------------------------------------------- 58
<Set all to normal>--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 59
<Set all to default> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 59
Installing additional fonts ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 60
The Formatting tab ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 61
Import text nodes. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 62
Examples:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 62
Import stacked fractions from Excel. ------------------------------------------------------ 62
Spaces between tab stops:------------------------------------------------------------------- 63
Height of a single line will be nnn% of text height. ------------------------------------- 63
Symbology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 63
Color:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 63
Weight:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 63
Style: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 63
Level:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 63
Handling unselected Symbology settings ---------------------------------------- 64
Take unselected settings from source document ----------------------------------- 64
Take unselected settings from active symbology ---------------------------------- 64
Attributes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 64
Bold Weight ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 64
Italic slant-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 64
The Size tab ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 64
Name ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 65
Text height:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 65
Text width: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 66
Text ratio lock--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 67
Add --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 67
Remove ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 67
Update ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 68
Move Up and Move Down------------------------------------------------------------------ 68
Non-text area height: and Non-text area width:------------------------------------------------ 68
Word wrap------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 68
How to compute cell height when pasting from Excel ---------------------------------- 69
How to compute cell height when pasting Microsoft Word tables -------------------- 70
The default case------------------------------------------------------------------------- 71
When cell height is defined exactly in the source document --------------------- 72
When a minimum height is defined in the source document-------------------- 73
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Chapter 11 Borders Settings Category ----------------------------------------------74

The Borders settings box -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 74
Border lines: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 74
As in source ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 75
Always ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 75
Never------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 75
Import diagonal border lines defined in source. ----------------------------------------------- 75
Shift Text in cells by nn% of the current line height---------------------------------------- 75
Import filled cells from Excel -------------------------------------------------------------- 75
Symbology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 75
Color: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 76
Weight ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 76
Style -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 76
Level ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 76
When you do not select color, weight or line style -------------------------------------- 76
Take un-selected settings from source document. --------------------------------- 76
Take un-selected settings from active symbology --------------------------------- 76
Chapter 12 Import Link Settings Category -----------------------------------------77

The Import Link Settings box -------------------------------------------------------------------- 77
Create a link to the original document.---------------------------------------------------------- 78
Update automatically when design file opens -------------------------------------------------- 78
Set up for automatic updating -------------------------------------------------------------- 79
Unload Microsoft Office Importer when automatic updates are completed. --------------- 79
Highlight color, Highlight line weight and highlight line style: ----------------------------- 79
Chapter 13 Troubleshooting ------------------------------------------------------------80

Formatting Options -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 80
Tables ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 80
In Microsoft Excel, text overlaps cell border--------------------------------------------- 80
In Microsoft Excel, cell contents print on top of each other---------------------------- 81
Microsoft Excel produces other anomalies ----------------------------------------------- 81
Grid lines or borders do not display ------------------------------------------------------- 81
Height of grid lines or text is not exact---------------------------------------------------- 82
Microsoft Word documents ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 82
Pasting of highly formatted document or document containing numbered lists is not perfect.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 82
Numbered lists have no space after the numbers.---------------------------------------- 83
Bullets are imported as fractions ----------------------------------------------------------- 84
Bullets or list numbers lost------------------------------------------------------------------ 85
Hanging indents overlap--------------------------------------------------------------------- 86
Text size is inconsistent with original document. ---------------------------------------- 86
Each imported word is a separate element. ----------------------------------------------- 87
Tables in Word documents import with cell height too narrow.------------------------ 87
Paragraph Indenting-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 87
Tabs in Word documents not lining up ---------------------------------------------------- 88
Linking Options ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 88
Pasted text is one column of characters --------------------------------------------------- 88
Deleted text keeps re-appearing ------------------------------------------------------------ 89
Moved text keeps reverting to previous location ---------------------------------------- 89
The paste does not update after editing the source--------------------------------------- 89
Table of Contents
Linked data contains a visible element at the start--------------------------------------- 90

MicroStation hangs up during the paste --------------------------------------------------- 90
Field Codes------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 90
Special characters print incorrectly -------------------------------------------------------- 90
Clipboard is tied up -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 90
Other errors/problems not covered here--------------------------------------------------- 90
Chapter 14 Well Make (Almost) Any Enhancements You Want -------------92

We welcome your suggestions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 92
Chapter 15 New Features and Fixes--------------------------------------------------93

Version 4.2a 16 October 2008 ---------------------------------------------------------------- 93
Version 4.1b 18 April 2008-------------------------------------------------------------------- 93
Version 4.1a 15 June 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 94
Version 4.0b 12 January 2007 ---------------------------------------------------------------- 94
Version 3.9c 22 September 2006 ------------------------------------------------------------- 94
Version 3.9b 4 August 2006------------------------------------------------------------------- 94
Version 3.9a 16 September 2005 ------------------------------------------------------------- 95
Version 3.8a 10 June 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 95
Version 3.7a 17 March 2005 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 95
Version 3.6b 31 December 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------- 95
Version 3.6a 23 December 2004-------------------------------------------------------------- 95
Version 3.5a 30 September 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------- 96
Version 3.4b 6 January 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 96
Version 3.3b 17 January 2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------- 97
Version 3.2a 22 February 2002 --------------------------------------------------------------- 98
Version 3.1c 28 November 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------- 98
Version 3.1b 31 October 2001 ---------------------------------------------------------------- 99
Version 3.1a 9 October 2001------------------------------------------------------------------ 99
Version 3.0a 17 July 2001 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 99
Version 2.0b 22 March 2001 -----------------------------------------------------------------100
Version 2.0a 19 January 2001----------------------------------------------------------------100
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Chapter 1 Overview
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Chapter 1 Ove rview
Features of Microsoft Office Importer

Microsoft Office Importer is a MicroStation productivity tool that can paste large
amounts of spreadsheet data and text from Microsoft Excel, Access and Word
applications into MicroStation design files with exceptional formatting.
There are many benefits, which include:
Eliminating the need for manual entry or manipulation of text in MicroStation that
exists in Microsoft Office documents.
Import and link Excel charts into your MicroStation design files.
Maintaining links to source documents with ability to update imported data

automatically or on demand.
Maintaining formats like italics, bold and underline with superior appearance.
Obtain clean, predictable, presentation quality output.
Importing large blocks of information with a single paste.
Automatic mapping of Microsoft fonts to MicroStation fonts
Stacked fraction support.
Support for Unicode fonts in Excel, allowing you to import text with fonts such as
Greek, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic into your design files.
Exact mapping of Microsoft point size to MicroStation text size.
Allowing pasting of paragraphs as easily editable text nodes. While MicroStation

import tools convert to single characters and line segments, Microsoft Office
Importer converts to text and text nodes.
Options to use symbology of the source document, MicroStation active symbology,

or individual selection of color, weight and level for the pasted text with separate
options including line style for pasted borders.
Microsoft Office Importer uses 92% less disk space than trying to use native
MicroStation commands to import the same text.
Ability to use the <Browse> button to locate a missing source file and change a link
to point to the source file at a new location.
Option to unlink with the ability to restore the link later if needed.
Providing many settings and pasting options that allow you the freedom to make a
paste look exactly as you want.
Microsoft Office Importer uses RTF (Rich Text Formatdata from the clipboard. Any
word processor or spreadsheet software that copies information to the clipboard in RTF
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format can theoretically work with Microsoft Office Importer although it was specifically
built and optimized for Microsofts Excel, Access and Word applications.
Microsoft Office Importer can be used with all kinds of data such as Equipment
Schedules, Bill of Materials, Tabular Data, Room Finish, Conduit/Panel/Motor Schedules
to name just a few.
Microsoft Office Importer is compatible with MicroStation SE and J in 2000 and XP. It
supports Microsoft Office 97, 2000 and 2003..
Users Guide setup

When pasting data from Word or Excel files, the title bar of the paste box will change
to clearly show which type of data you are pasting into MicroStation. For Word, this title
bar will read Paste Word data into MicroStation and, for Excel, this title bar will read
Paste Excel data into MicroStation. Additionally, when referring to the paste box, it
will always be referred to as the Paste Excel data into MicroStation box unless we are
specifically dealing with Word data.
There is a Page width: option when pasting that refers Word or Excel depending on
which you are pasting into MicroStation. This option will read and appear as Scale
proportional to Excel data throughout the document unless Word data is specifically
being referred to.
Definition of the word clipboard

The word clipboard when used in the Microsoft Office Importer interface or in this
Users Guide, is defined as follows:
A temporary memory area, used to transfer information within a document being edited
or between documents or between programs. The fundamental operations are cut which
moves data from a document to the clipboard, copy which copies it to the clipboard
and paste which inserts the clipboard contents into the current document in place of the
current selection.
Chapter 2 Installation
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Chapter 2 Inst allation
Before You Install

This chapter will walk you through a typical Axiom product installation. These
instructions apply to both MicroStation V7 and V8. V7 products are used in the
examples.
To install one or more Axiom products, you need:
The latest Axiom product CD; and
A license file on floppy disk for the product(s) you are about to install.
Please shut down all MicroStation sessions on your computer before continuing.
Typical Installation from CD

1. Insert the Axiom product CD into your CD drive.
2. The dialog box below should come up automatically. This may take a few moments
depending on computer and CD drive speed.
CONDITIONAL: In some cases Windows is set to suppress auto-running executables.
If the installation process does not begin automatically when you insert the CD, you will
need to start the process manually. From the Windows Start Menu, choose Run and
type in the following:
D:\Setup.exe
where D is your CD drive letter.
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3. Click the <OK> button and the first installation dialog box (below) will appear.
4. Select MicroStation V7 or MicroStation V8 and click <Next>.

5. Choose which type of installation you want to perform. The Typical installation is
best for most situations and asks the user to make very few decisions.
6. These instructions will describe only the Typical installation path. Choose
Typical and click <Next>.
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7. Choose the license file for this installation. Place the floppy disk that came with this
installation CD into your floppy drive now.
8. Choose I have a floppy disk from Axiom. and click <Next>.

Although you have already selected the MicroStation family (V7 or V8) for which
you want to install Axiom tools, it is common for one computer to have more than
one instance of MicroStation installed on it. For example, you might have two
versions of MicroStation/J installed (07.01.04.16 and 07.02.04.20). You must choose
which of the two you want to associate your Axiom tools with.
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9. Highlight the version of MicroStation you want to associate the Axiom tools with and
click <Next>.
Since this is a Typical installation, all programs for which an Axiom license was
found will already be checked-on to be installed. Other items that are also
automatically checked-on for installation are the product Users Guides, individual
product sample files and Axioms MicroStation pull-down menu.
10. To proceed with default selections click <Next>.

Youve now completed the Pre-Setup.
11. Click <Next> to proceed with the installation.
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12. The <Next>button is grayed-out unless you accept the agreement.
If you accept the license and click <Next>, the installation will begin. You can click
<Cancel> at any time to abort the installation.
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13. This is the final dialog box. It shows that the installation is complete. By default the
View Readme.pdf option is toggled on and will display the Readme.pdf document
when you click <Finish>.
Congratulations
Thats it! You have successfully completed the installation of your Axiom tools.
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Chapter 3 Uni nstalling
Uninstalling Axiom products

Axiom products can be uninstalled easily through the Windows Start Menu.
1. Go to <Start>, Programs | Axiom.
2. Select Uninstall V7 products or Uninstall V8 products depending on the products
you want to uninstall.
3. Choose Select all. or Select components to uninstall. If you choose Select

components to uninstall. then each product in the list can be manually checked or
unchecked. This allows for any combination of products to be uninstalled. Only
installed products will be shown in the list.
Note: At the bottom of the list of products you also have the option to uninstall sample
design files, users guides and even the Axiom pull-down menu.
4. Once youve made your selections, click the <Uninstall> button to complete the
uninstall process.
Chapter 4 Quick Start
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Chapter 4 Qui ck Start
Quick Start Objectives

The purpose of this Quick Start is to introduce you to the basic features of Microsoft
Office Importer so that you can immediately use the program.
This Quick Start should take less than 1 hour for all steps, however, you can do the
tutorials that apply to your specific needs in less time.
Prerequisites
1. MicroStation SE or J.
2. Microsoft Office Importer must be installed on your computer. You can verify this by
selecting the Axiom menu from MicroStations main menu bar, then select
Microsoft Office Importer. If Microsoft Office Importer does not load, follow the
instructions in the Installation section of your Microsoft Office Importer Users
Guide.
3. You will need the sample files that are delivered with Microsoft Office Importer.
These sample files will be found in a samples folder in the Microsoft Office
Importer installation folder. By default, it is located here:
c:\Program Files\Axiom\V7\office\sample\
Demonstration Version
The demonstration version of Microsoft Office Importer will work with design files up to
100 kilobytes and expires on a specific date. Until the time of expiration, you can use
Microsoft Office Importer to become fully familiar with its features.
The demonstration version also has an accumulated paste limit of 50 lines. To reset the
limit, unload Microsoft Office Importer through Utilities | MDL Applications, choose
OFFICE and click the <Unload> button. Then, restart Microsoft Office Importer from
the Axiom menu.
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Tutorial #1 Basics
1. Select Microsoft Office Importer from the Axiom menu. You will see the Microsoft
Office Importer toolbar.
2. Click the <Settings> button, located on the far right of the Microsoft Office Importer
toolbar, to open the Settings dialog box.
3. Just in case someone worked with Microsoft Office Importer before you began this
Quick Start, lets restore factory defaults. In the upper left hand corner of the settings
dialog box, you will see a File drop down menu. Select the option, Reset to Factory
Defaults.
4. Answer Yes to the Alert message that appears.

5. If you have any questions about Microsoft Office Importers features, the full User
Guide is always available from Microsoft Office Importers Help menu:
6. In the next tutorials, we will look at pasting a spreadsheet with the default settings
and then changing settings and pasting again to see how the appearance of the paste
can be altered.
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Tutorial #2 Paste a spreadsheet using default options

1. To begin, open MicroStation and open a new blank design file or the sample test file
that comes with Microsoft Office Importer. It is called office.dgn and will be
found in the installation sample directory which, by default is:
c:\program files\axiom\office\V7\sample\office.dgn
2. Select Microsoft Office Importer from the Axiom menu on the MicroStation menu
bar. Or you can load Microsoft Office Importer by keying in an mdl load command
on the MicroStation command line. You need to add the path to the Office
application for your installation, for example:
mdl load c:\axiom\office\office.ma
3. The Microsoft Office Importer toolbar displays. From left to right, you see the
<Paste>, <Manage> , <Info> and <Settings> buttons. We will start with a simple
paste using the default settings.
4. Load Microsoft Excel and open the sample file provided with Microsoft Office
Importer called project.xls. It will be found in the installation directory. For
example:
c:\program files\axiom\v7\office\sample\project.xls
5. Copy all or part of the spreadsheet to the clipboard by using highlight and Edit |
Copy or <Ctrl+C>.
6. Now go back to MicroStation and press Microsoft Office Importers <Paste clipboard
data into MicroStation> button:
7. Move your mouse/cursor and notice that a box is hanging off of your cursor point.
Move the cursor over to a blank place in the design file.
8. Click to accept the placement. Microsoft Office Importer will drop the contents
of the clipboard from the Excel file onto your MicroStation design file.
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9. By default, your paste will contain a link to the Excel spreadsheet. You will see the
following information box that you can close by clicking the <OK> button.
10. Use the Window Area tool to zoom in on that newly placed box to see the text. The
image below shows part of what you should see on your screen:
The text, which is a ten point Arial font in the Excel table, is pasted with a text height of
10 master units in the design file. This is the result of using the default settings.
Tutorial #3 Adding or eliminating grid lines

The display of borderlines are determined with the Format | Cells options in
Microsoft Excel. In the previous tutorial, no borders were specified.
You can add or eliminate all cell outlines in your paste by using an option in the Table
Lines category of the settings menu. In this example, we turn on all grid lines in the
paste.
1. Select Category Borders from the Microsoft Office Importer Settings dialog box.
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2. From the Borders: pull down menu, select Always, and click the <OK> button.
3. Your text from the last tutorial should still be on the clipboard. If it is not, copy the
selected spreadsheet information to the clipboard again.
4. In MicroStation, click the paste button and place the new spreadsheet in a blank part
of the design file.
5. Part of your pasted data should look like the image below.
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Tutorial #4 Pasting Word documents

When you are pasting Word data, the Paste Word data into MicroStation dialog box
appears once Microsoft Office Importer has finished analyzing the clipboard contents.
These tutorials will show how the options on this dialog box allow you to change the
appearance of your pasted Word data.
The image below shows factory defaults, pasting Word data:
When you paste Word documents using the factory default settings, you should get a
good quality paste that is acceptable in most cases. There are a couple of conditions you
may have to care for to maximize the quality of your pastes and these are:
All text will paste with the factory default font, which is font 0, Standard. Words that
are italicized or bolded within sentences will be italicized or bolded by default in the
paste. To modify the bold weight or italic slant, modify the Attributes section under
the Formatting tab within Microsoft Office Importers settings.
You can, however, easily change a single option at paste time to paste with full
formatting including indenting, numbered lists, italics and bold text. This option will
also give the best result when pasting numbered lists or documents with tabs. See the
section in this Quick Start titled Pasting with TrueType fonts.
The width of text may or may not be acceptable for your use. You can easily change
the width. See the section in this tutorial titled, Changing the width of the paste.
See later sections in this guide for other options to change size, color of text, and line
height.
Pasting with TrueType fonts

In this tutorial we will set up a TrueType font family. The advantage of using a TrueType
font is that the pasted text size and appearance will be more like the original. In
spreadsheets, it will be more likely to fit within cell borders using default border settings.
A font family, as created and defined by Microsoft Corporation, consists of related fonts
that differ in normal, bold and italic styles. For example, the Times Roman font family
has many fonts including times, timesi, timesbd and timesbi.
The text in our sample Microsoft Word file uses the Times New Roman TrueType font.
If you do not currently have Times New Roman TrueType fonts available in
MicroStation, see the section in this guide called, Installing additional fonts. There you
will find instructions on how to get your Windows TrueType fonts into MicroStation. For
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this tutorial, you should import into MicroStation the four TrueType fonts of the Times
family mentioned above.
Now you are ready to begin.
1. Open the Microsoft Office Importer Settings dialog box and select the Text as in
the image below.
2. Select the Font tab. Then, select the Advanced font mapping: option. The image
below shows the default settings for Roman (Times) text.
3. Ensure that the Roman (Times) font is highlighted in the font list on the left.
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4. The four text boxes on the right allow you to select a different font for normal, bold,
italic, and bold-italic Roman (Times) text. Select a font for Normal text (not bold
or italicized) by opening the pull-down menu and highlighting your Times font
(font number 62 in our example below).
5. Now set up your four fonts as in the image below.
Tip: If you have no separate fonts for bold and italic, you can select the same font for all
four options and select the Weight and Slant checkboxes. Define the bold weight and
italic slant in the Formatting tab options.
6. You have now set up the automatic conversion of Times New Roman text to a Times
font. You may want to take a minute to save these settings by choosing File | Save
Settings. They will automatically be saved to your default settings in the
office.ini file.
7. Close the Settings dialog box by clicking the <OK> button.
8. In Word, open the sample file named OfficeSample.doc that is delivered with
Microsoft Office Importer. This file is located in the Microsoft Office Importer
sample folder which, by default, it is located here:
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C:\Program Files\Axiom\V7\office\sample\
9. Select all the text in the OfficeSample.doc file and copy it to the Windows
Clipboard (Edit | Copy...).
10. In MicroStation, click Microsoft Office Importers <Paste> button. You will see the
Paste Word data into MicroStation dialog box.
11. Choose Define width while placing text. from the Page width: pull down menu,
shown in the screen shot below:
12. Place two data points to define the width of the paste in the design file.
13. The resulting paste will use the Times New Roman fonts and show good formatting
for italics, bold and underlined text.
Note: If your paste only shows an outline of the letters (the letters are not filled in), you
simply need to turn on the fill view attribute in MicroStation (Settings | View
Attributes | Fill).
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Pasting Word paragraphs as text nodes

1. In Word, open the sample file named OfficeSample.doc that is delivered with
Microsoft Office Importer. This file is located in the Microsoft Office Importer
sample folder which, by default, it is located here:
C:\Program Files\Axiom\V7\office\sample\
2. Copy the text of that file to the clipboard with Edit | Copy or <Ctrl+C>.
3. Reset the settings to the defaults by clicking the <Settings> button and then select
File | Reset to Factory Defaults. Finally, click the <Yes> button when the
Alert message box displays.
4. Click the <Paste> button, then set the Page width: to Width defined by text size
on clipboard. Locate and check (turn On) the Import paragraphs as text nodes
option.
5. Paste the contents of the clipboard into your sample design file using the default
options. It will have no special formatting and may look something like the image
below, which shows the leftmost part of the paste. Each paragraph is a text node.
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Changing the width of the paste

1. In Microsoft Word, copy the text of OfficeSample.doc to the clipboard with
Edit | Copy or <Ctrl+C>.
2. In MicroStation, open Microsoft Office Importer if it is not already open.
3. Click the <Paste> button. You will see the Paste word data into MicroStation
dialog box.
4. Select the option Define width while placing text from the Page Width: drop
down menu as in the image below:
5. Now you are prompted to enter two points to define the width. Your result could look
like the image below.
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Tutorial #5 Importing with links

Importing with links to the original document enables you to update the paste from the
source document at a later time. Updates can be set up to occur automatically when the
design file is opened or manually by clicking an update button. This tutorial demonstrates
manual update.
Microsoft Office Importer gives you an easy method to create links in your design file.
We will demonstrate how to paste a spreadsheet with a link and update that link.
1. Use Microsoft Excel to open the sample file provided with Microsoft Office Importer
called project.xls. By default, this file will be found in the Microsoft Office
Importer installation folder, shown below:
C:\Program Files\Axiom\v7\office\sample\project.xls
2. Copy all or part of the spreadsheet to the clipboard by using highlight and Edit |
Copy or <Ctrl+C>.
3. Open office.dgn in MicroStation if it is not already opened.
4. Click the <Paste clipboard data into MicroStation> button.
5. The Paste Excel data into MicroStation dialog box appears. Set the Page width:
to Width defined by text size on clipboard. Note that the Import with link to
original document and Update automatically when design file opens options are
on by default.
6. Use a data point to place your clipboard information into the design file.
7. Now click the <Info> button Microsoft Office Importer toolbar.
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8. You will see a highlighted display of link information that includes the path to the
source document and the type of link. The highlighted border shows the exact extent
of the pasted table.
Note: The text size of the link information is set in your MicroStation active text size.
The size of the link information text may be different than the default size used for the
imported text.
9. Next, click the <Manage> button.
10. In MicroStations status bar (lower left of your MicroStation window) you will be
prompted to Identify element in the pasted data. Actual text will state Manage
Import Link > Identify element. Put a data point somewhere on the pasted elements
and then click another data point to accept. The Manage Import Link dialog box
then opens (shown below).
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11. Click the <Edit> button and make some changes into the spreadsheet. Be sure to
save the changes in Excel because the update function only picks up saved changes.
12. Back in MicroStation, click the <Update> button. The pasted text will update with
your saved changes.
Note: By default Microsoft Office Importer, installs in the MS_DGNAPPS configuration
variable. The result of this is that if you update the source document later and then open
the design file, Microsoft Office Importer triggers an automatic update of pasted text.
Tutorial #6 Pasting Excel charts into MicroStation

1. To begin, open MicroStation and open a new design file or the sample file that comes
with Microsoft Office Importer for V8. It is called office.dgn and will be found
in the sample folder where Microsoft Office Importer for V8 is installed. The
default location for the sample folder is shown below:
c:\program files\axiom\v7\office\sample\office.dgn
2. Select Microsoft Office Importer for V8 from the Axiom menu on the MicroStation
Menu Bar. Or you can load Microsoft Office Importer for V8 by keying in an mdl
load in the MicroStation key-in window (Utilities | Key-in). You need to add the
full path and file name for the Microsoft Office Importer for V8 application. For a
default installation of Microsoft Office Importer for V8, you would use the following
mdl load key-in command:
mdl load "c:\program files\axiom\v7\office\office.ma"
3. When Microsoft Office Importer loads, you will see the Microsoft Office Importer
dialog.
4. Open the sample spreadsheet the Microsoft Office Importer sample folder called
Project.xls.
5. Select the chart Microsoft Office Importers sample chart
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Microsoft Office importer's sample chart

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
SW parcel 1
SW parcel 1a
SW parcel 1b
SW parcel 1c
SW parcel 2
SW parcel 2a
6. Right-click and select the Copy option from the right-click menu.
7. Now, inside MicroStation, click the <Paste Excel charts into MicroStation> button.
8. Accept the location of your paste by inside the design file.

Congratulations!
You have completed the Quick Start for Microsoft Office Importer.
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Chapter 5 Usi ng Microsoft Office

Importer
Starting Microsoft Office Importer

You can select Microsoft Office Importer from the Axiom menu in the MicroStation
menu bar (V8 picture shown).
or
You can load Microsoft Office Importer by keying in an mdl load command on the
MicroStation command line. You need to add the path to office.ma for your installation.
For example:
mdl load c:\program files\axiom\v7\office\office.ma
Main tool box
The main toolbox of Microsoft Office Importer has five selections:

1. Paste Excel data into MicroStation
2. Paste Excel charts into MicroStation
3. Manage import links
4. Display import link information
5. Microsoft Office Importer settings
Definition: An import link is an active link to a Microsoft Word document or Excel
spreadsheet. Microsoft Office Importer creates an active link if the Import with link
Chapter 5 Using Microsoft Office Importer
Page 35
option is selected at the time of the Paste. See the chapter on Managing Import Links in
this guide for more information.
Paste Excel data into MicroStation
When you press the <Paste clipboard data into MicroStation> button on the main tool
bar, Microsoft Office Importer will open the Paste Excel data into MicroStation box
and allow you to paste the contents of your computers clipboard onto your design.
Note: The title bar will indicate if you are pasting Excel data Paste Excel data into
MicroStation or Word data Paste Word data into MicroStation to clearly show what
type of data you are pasting.
When this box appears and there is Microsoft Word or Excel data on the clipboard, you
can paste with a single data point in the design file.
See the Paste clipboard data into MicroStation section of this guide for a detailed
description of the options available in this box.
Paste Excel charts into MicroStation
The <Paste Excel charts into MicroStation> button will allow you to paste Excel charts
into your design file. These charts are linked to the source chart so that any modification
to the chart can be automatically updated inside the design file.
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Manage import links
When you press the <Manage> button on the main tool bar, Microsoft Office Importer
will ask you to Identify element. Click on an element in the pasted information you
want to work with. Then you will see the Manage Import Link box with options to edit,
update or unlink the linked document that you chose to manage. This box and its options
are described in detail later in this guide.
Manage Import Link box showing Link tab.
Manage Import Link box showing Symbology tab.
Chapter 5 Using Microsoft Office Importer
Page 37
Display import link information
When you press the <Info> button, Microsoft Office Importer will highlight any of its
linked data in your file. As you can see in the sample below, the path to the source
document displays as well as the link type.
Definitions: Link type can be Automatic, Manual or Not Linked.
With Automatic links, the pasted text updates automatically when the design file is
opened as long as Microsoft Office Importer is running.
With Manual links, updates occur only when you click the <Update> button on the
Manage Import Link dialog box.
Microsoft Office Importer Settings
The <Settings> icon will bring up the Microsoft Office Importer Settings box, which is
described in a later section of this guide. Microsoft Office Importer has many options that
allow you to place documents with the settings and symbology that you want.
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Chapter 6 Pas ting clipboard data and

Excel charts into MicroStation
The <Paste clipboard data into MicroStation> tool

Before pasting, copy your selected Microsoft Word, Excel or Access content to the
clipboard.
When you click the Microsoft Office Importer <Paste clipboard contents into
MicroStation> button,, you are ready to import the contents of the clipboard into your
design file. You can then place the clipboard contents on your design file with a data
point.
The Microsoft Office Importer default settings have been designed to give great results in
most cases. However, you may need to modify some settings to achieve the best results
with your data.
The Paste Excel data into MicroStation box

The Paste Excel data into MicroStation box appears after you click the clipboard
contents into MicroStation> button and becomes active after the program analyzes the
contents of the clipboard. It allows you to make some last minute selections before
placing the text.
Chapter 6 Pasting clipboard data and Excel charts into MicroStation
Page 39
Page width:
The Page width: drop down menu gives you two options for pasting Excel data into
MicroStation. For pasting Word data into MicroStation, you have three Page width:
options. Each option produces very different results and are described in the following
sections.
Excel Page width: options.
Word Page width: options.
Width defined by text size on clipboard (Excel and Word)

This option is available for pasting Excel and Word data into MicroStation.
Width defined by text size on clipboard is the default option. When you use this option,
the width of the line will be taken from the clipboard. You will see an outline showing
the width. You can paste it with a single data point on the design file.
Note: Using the Paste clipboard contents. option from the Axiom pull-down menu will
paste Excel or Word data using this method also.
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Define width while placing text (Word only)

This option is available only for pasting Word data into MicroStation.
When you select Define width while placing text, you place the clipboard contents with
a single data point that defines the top left corner of the text and move your cursor to the
right. An outline will follow the cursor. Click the mouse when you have reached the
desired width.
Note: Using the Paste User defined width (Word only) option from the Axiom pulldown menu will paste Word data using this method also.
Note: This option, Define width while placing text does not function when importing
tables in Word documents. In these cases when Define width while placing text is used
the import width will be the same as if the Define width from clipboard text size option
was used. This is because the Scale proportional to Word data (or Excel data) option
should be used to maintain the same cell width to height ratio as in the spreadsheet when
importing. Another option is to use MicroStations Graphic Group lock and the Scale
Element tool after the import to resize the imported area as needed.
Scale proportional to Excel (or Word) data

This option is available for pasting Excel and Word data into MicroStation.
When you use Scale proportional to Excel data, you can define the width of the paste
with two data points as in the previous option. The difference is that the size of text, both
the text height and width, will be increased or decreased proportionally to fit the defined
width.
If you select the same data point when specifying the width you will get this message in
the message area The user defined page width is too small. You must specify a
different data point than the first data point when using the Scale proportional to Excel
data width option.
Note: Using the Paste User defined size option from the Axiom pull-down menu will
paste Word data using this method also.
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Text height and width
Using the default settings as in the image above, 10-point text will paste with a height of
10 master units and a width of 8 master units.
Text height:
The Text Height field displays the text height scale of master units to points that is
currently active and gives you a chance to change it if you want.
Text width:
The Text Width: field allows you to make a last minute change to the width of a
standard character.
Import with a link to the original document.

One of the benefits of Microsoft Office Importer is its ability to keep imported
information in MicroStation linked to its source document (Word doc or Excel
spreadsheet). Unless you have a good reason not to want any kind of link, we recommend
you leave this setting turned on.
Important note: After pasting with Microsoft Office Importer, the source document
must be saved in order to establish a valid link.
Tip: Even if you do not select the Import with link the linkage information is saved
with the paste. This allows you to establish the link to the source document later. See the
<Update> function in The Manage Import Link box section below.
Update automatically when design file opens.

When you select Import with link, you also have an option to select automatic
updating for the imported document. With automatic updating, the pasted text will update
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from the source document automatically when you open the design file. However, this
can happen only when Microsoft Office Importer is loaded and running.
To set up for automatic updating, see the section called Installation for automatic
update in the installation section of this guide.
Tip: If you want to turn Automatic update on or off for a selection that has already
been imported, you can do so in the Manage Import Linkbox, accessed via the
Manage button on the Microsoft Office Importer toolbar.
Import paragraphs as text nodes. (Some formatting may be lost.)

By default, paragraphs are imported as text nodes and formatting is preserved. You also
have an option to import paragraphs as text nodes by turn this setting on. When you
select this, you may lose some formatting. Words that are italicized or bolded within
sentences will not be italicized or bolded in the paste. Each paragraph will take the format
of the first word in the paragraph.
A full description of this option can be found later in this guide in the section on Text
Settings.
The Paste Excel charts into MicroStation tool
The <Paste Excel charts into MicroStation> will allow you to paste Excel charts into your
design file. These charts are linked to the source chart for future automatic update by
Microsoft Office Importer.
The Paste Excel charts into MicroStation box appears after you have copied an Excel
chart to your clipboard and clicked the <Paste Excel charts into MicroStation> button.
The Paste Excel charts into MicroStation dialog
The Paste Excel charts into MicroStation dialog allows you to increase or decrease the
size of your chart beforeit is pasted into your design file.
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Scale
The Scale field is used to adjust the size of your chart as it will appear in your design
file. A Scale of 1.0 (the default) is recommended. This will result in the placement of a
chart that is comparable in size to other Excel data (cells) that youd paste in that same
design file.
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Chapter 7 Man aging Imported Links
The <Manage> button

The <Manage> button on the main toolbar allows you to change certain aspects of the
linked information, update the linked information from its source document and quickly
edit the source document.
Click the <Manage> button and you will be prompted:

Manage Import Link > Identify element
Click on some part of the linked data that you want to manage and then data point to
accept your choice. The Manage Import Link box will open.
Note: The Manage function can also be accessed from the Axiom pull-down menu using
the Manage an existing Microsoft Office Importer link. option. This is the same as
pressing the <Manage> button.
Chapter 7 Managing Imported Links
Page 45
The Manage Import Link box
<Apply>
The <Apply> button will only be enabled if a valid change to the Excel Range or
Symbology is made. Click the <Apply> button to apply any changes made to Excel
Range or Symbology.
<Edit>
Click the <Edit> button to open the source document for editing. Be sure to save your
modified source document. <Update>
Click the <Update> button to update the linked information from the source document.
Also use the <Update> button to confirm any changes made in the Source field.
If you originally imported the pasted information without selecting the link option or you
have unlinked an area, you can establish the link by just clicking <Update>.
The <Update> function works only with saved files and it is always necessary to save the
changed source file before the update in order for the update to be successful.
Tip: Use the key-in command OFFICE UPDATEALL to update all of the Microsoft
Office Importer links in your active model.
<Close>
Click <Close> to close the Manage Import Link box.
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The Link tab
Manage Import Link box showing Link tab.
Source:
When you move or rename a source file that is linked to a design file, the link is
generally broken. With the <Select> button you can locate the source document in its
new location and Microsoft Office Importer will repair the link. After locating the new
source document, click the <Update> button to save the full file specification as the new
Source: field value.

You can change the link type of the paste from Automatic to Manual or from Manual to
Automatic with this toggle. If the link type is Not Linked, setting this toggle to on will
reestablish a link to the source document. After changing this toggle, click <Update> to
save the change.
<Unlink>
Click <Unlink> to delete the active link information. After doing this, you will not be
able to update automatically from the source document. However, you can establish the
link again as described in the previous paragraph.
Excel Attributes
This section of the box gives you options for adjusting the cell range and the Excel sheet
name the information was pasted from.
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Top Left Cell/Bottom Right Cell

Edit the range of your linked Excel information. If a column or row is added modify the
range in the Top Left/Bottom Right fields so that Microsoft Office Importer knows the
exact area of your spreadsheet you wish to link into MicroStation. Click the <Apply>
button to apply your cell range changes.
Sheet Name
Edit the name of the Excel sheet tab from which your spreadsheet was pasted. If the name
of the Excel sheet was changed, click the <Apply> button to apply the name change.
The Symbology tab
Manage Import Link box showing Symbology tab.
Text
These are options for setting the symbology for all of the text in an existing Microsoft
Office Importer paste.
Color:
Color overrides the present text color within your imported text, check this option and
use the color picker to select any color for your pasted text.
Weight
Weight overrides the present text weight within your imported text, check this option
and use the weight picker to select any weight for your pasted text.
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Style:
Style overrides the present text style of your imported text, check this option and use
the style picker to select any style for your pasted text.
Level:
Level overrides the present text level of your imported text, check this option and use
the level picker to select any level for your pasted text.
When you do not select color, weight or level
Options for handling unselected settings.
Take unselected settings from source document

When you do not select exact color, weight, or level in the options above, choose this
option to always take these settings from your source document.
Take unselected settings from active symbology

When you do not select exact color, weight or level in the options above, choose this
option to always take these settings from MicroStation active symbology.
Borders
The Borders category allows a user to modify color, weight, style and level attributes
for any previously pasted spreadsheet or word document. Take unselected settings
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options are also available for Borders as well. Remember, changes here will be applied
to all of the border lines.
Additional information on working with linked data

When you paste text or spreadsheets with Microsoft Office Importer, the program creates
a small point cell containing a zero length line that is a construction element. This point
cell contains the link information. You can see this cell just above the left side of the
paste if you set view attributes to view constructions.
The point cells, containing link information, together with the other elements of the paste,
form a Graphic Group.
Rotating or moving linked data

To successfully rotate or move linked information, you should have Graphic Group lock
On (checked). Then you will be able to update from the source while maintaining the
rotation angle and new location. If you rotate or move linked data without graphic group
lock turned on, your link may be un-rotated and un-moved when you update it.
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Chapter 8 Imp ort Link Information
The Info button
Use the <Info> button to highlight all linked data in the active design file and display the
name of the source document and the link type (Automatic, Manual or Not Linked). Link
type will be Not Linked if you did not use the option to link the text. However, you can
still use the <Edit> button to open the source document and update the file.
Note: This functionality is also available from the Axiom pull-down menu. Select the
Highlight existing Microsoft Office Importer links option to display the link
information.
You can choose the color, line weight and line style of the display in the Settings |
Import Link box.
The text size of the link information is the active text size and is not related to the size of
the pasted text.
Chapter 9 Microsoft Office Importer Settings
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Chapter 9 Mic rosoft Office Importer

Settings
The <Settings> button

The <Settings> button opens Microsoft Office Importers Settings box. Here you can
tailor the appearance of your paste by selecting various options.
Note: you can also access Microsoft Office Importers settings from the Axiom pulldown menu by selecting the Change Microsoft Office Importer settings. option.
Microsoft Office Importer Settings box

You can find descriptions of the options in the Text, Borders and Import Link
sections of this Users Guide.
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File menu
The File menu on the top bar of the Settings box allows you to save several sets of
options and recall options that were previously saved.
Options are saved in initialization files also known as .ini files. The .ini files can be
edited with a text editor.
When you first install and run Microsoft Office Importer, the program creates an
office.ini file in the same directory with office.ma. This file contains the factory
default settings and loads by default when Microsoft Office Importer starts up.
The default settings file office.ini will initially contain the factory default settings
values but you can change these settings and save your preferences to any location.
Saving your own settings

You can tailor your settings and save them in different locations and with different
names.
You can use a configuration variable, OFFICE_INI to point to your saved settings.
OFFICE_INI can contain simply a directory path pointing to a directory containing
office.ini or it can contain the full file spec of your settings file.
Examples:
c:\myOfficeSettings\
c:\settings\office\project123.ini
Tip: Users running office.ma from a server may find it useful to set up OFFICE_INI, to
save personal settings on a local drive.
If you do not define the OFFICE_INI configuration variable, Microsoft Office Importer
will look for the last settings file that was used and load it if it can find it. When it finds
no settings file, it loads the factory default settings.
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Load Settings...
When Microsoft Office Importer is started up, it searches for a valid settings file and
loads the first one it finds. It looks in the following places:
1. The .ini file defined in the $(OFFICE_INI) MicroStation configuration variable.
2. The office.ini file in the directory defined by the $(OFFICE_INI) MicroStation
configuration variable.
3. The previous settings file used if it exists.
4. The office.ini file in the directory that office.ma was executed from.
5. The office.ini file in the axiom directory.
6. If Microsoft Office Importer does not find office.ini in any of these directories,
it will use its factory default settings.
Save Settings
Use Save Settings to save all currently selected options into the active settings file.
If you have not loaded a different .ini file, the settings will be saved to the default .ini
file, which is OFFICE.INI.
Save Settings As...

Use Save Settings As to save your current settings with a filename of your choice.
Restore Factory Defaults

This clears all settings to their factory default state.
Help menu
The Help menu gives you options to open the Microsoft Office Importer Help file
and to open an HTML file with version and licensing information, as well as Axiom
contact information and e-mail addresses.
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Help | Contents...
The Contents option of the Help menu opens this Users Guide in the form of a
Help file.
Help | About...
The Help | About function displays an informational box which shows the current
version, license type and copyright information for Microsoft Office Importer. It also
gives you Axiom contact information and hyperlinks.
Category
In the settings box you will see several categories on the left. When you highlight one of
these categories, the options associated with that category appear on the right.
Currently active settings file name

You will see the name of the currently active settings file in the title bar of the settings
box.
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Match
Use this button to change the current settings to match those settings stored in an existing
link. Click the <Match> button, select the link you want to match the settings from, then
data point to accept.
Information field
At the bottom of the settings box is an information field. The information displayed in
this field relates to the last area where you clicked your mouse. In the example below,
input focus is in the Height field.
This information field contains only a general description. If you need more information,
you can use the Help | Contents... menu to bring up the full Users Guide.
<OK>
Click <OK> to accept the current settings and close the Settings box.
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<Cancel>
Click <Cancel> to close the Settings box without saving any changes made.
Chapter 10 Text Settings Category
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Chapter 10 Tex t Settings Category
The Text settings box

The Text settings box contains three tabs:
1. Font tab, which gives you settings to control the fonts used in your pastes.
2. Formatting tab, which gives you settings for controlling how the text is
formatted in your pastes.
3. Size tab, which gives you settings for controlling the scale at which your text is
pasted and sizing the non-text areas.
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The Font tab

The four options in this tab allow the user to define exactly what fonts to be used when
importing Microsoft Word or Excel documents.
Use same fonts as source document.

Enable this option to use exactly the same fonts that are contained within a source
document when pasting it into MicroStation.
Set default font

The font chosen here will be used for all pastes into MicroStation. The fonts displayed in
this pulldown menu are determined by MicroStations font.rsc file. Instructions on how to
install new fonts are located at the end of this section.
Use active font

MicroStations active font will determine the font that is used when pasting.
Advanced font mapping

The Advanced font mapping is used so that Microsoft Office Importer can use the font
family that matches the font used in the source document. For example, if the font in the
Microsoft Word file is Arial, it will paste with the fonts selected for the Arial family.
If the font in the source does not belong to any of the Microsoft font families, then the
default font is used.
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Microsoft Word provides TrueType fonts for creating "portable" documents, that is,
documents that always keep their original appearance no matter which computer or
printer you use to view or print them.
The TrueType fonts and the PostScript fonts have a font family. These are Roman
(Times), Swiss (Arial, Helvetica), Modern (Courier), Script (Script) and some
others. You can use the full family when pasting Microsoft Word documents.
The image below shows the font family settings box with the factory defaults.
Using font families allows you to achieve the best output with the least amount of work.
<Set all to normal>
Use <Set all to normal> to set the bold, italic and bold-italic fonts to the same number
font as the normal font for that font family. Text that is on the clipboard as bold or italic
text will then paste using the normal font.
<Set all to default>
Use the <Set all to default> button to set all fonts to the default font that is on the
previous tab. This erases all special settings.
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Installing additional fonts

1. Key-in MDL LOAD FONTINST to start the font installer or select Utilities | Install
Fonts from the main MicroStation menu.
2. Click the Source File <Open> button, the one on the left.
3. Select TrueType.
1. Navigate toyour Windows fonts directory (usually in C:\Windows\Fonts\).

4. If it isnt obvious which file contains the font you need to install, browse the font
directory with the Windows Explorer, which lists the font's name (The MicroStation
Font Installer only lists the file name containing the font). This way you can be sure
which file contains the proper font and then use that font file name with the
MicroStation Font Installer.
5. Select the files you want to import. You can select multiple files by holding down the
<Ctrl> key while making your selections.
6. Clickthe <Add>button to put your selected fonts in the file list and then click the
<Done> button.
7. Click the <Open> button on the right side and navigate to the resource file that
contains the fonts in your copy of MicroStation. The default location is usually:
\Bentley\Workspace\system\symb\font.rsc
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8. Click <OK>. Youll know if you have the right file because all the fonts that are
already in MicroStation will now appear in the right-side window of the dialog box.
9. Highlight the fonts in the source file list.
10. Click the <>> Copy>> > button to import your fonts.
11. When the import processing is completed, click the <Done> button.
The Formatting tab
Use the Formatting tab to set options for importing paragraphs as text nodes, importing
stacked fractions, setting the symbology and other options.
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Import text nodes.

When you select this, each paragraph pastes as a single text node. This setting is Off
(unchecked) by default.
If your standards require consistency of text appearance, you can use this option to force
all italics, bold and underlined text to the style of the first character of the paste. Another
advantage of this option is that the pasted text will be easier to edit using MicroStation
tools. However, all text in a paragraph will paste with the symbology of the first
character. Embedded bold, italic and underlined text may paste as normal text. Special
formatting, tabs and numbered lists will look less like the original.
Note: If it is desirable to edit pasted text and to maintain perfect formatting, consider
linking the pasted text to the source document and making changes in the source
document. The Manage function of Microsoft Office Importer facilitates this method.
Examples:
For example, consider a paragraph containing one underlined word like the following.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of
the party.
When this option is On (checked), this text pastes as a single text node and all words
have the same formatting. The underline is lost.
Import stacked fractions from Excel.

When the Import stacked fractions from Excel option is turned on, fractions within
your Excel spreadsheets will be converted into stacked fractions in MicroStation.
In order to convert fractions from Excel into stacked fractions in MicroStation, the
following conditions must be met:
1. The Excel cells Number format (Format | Cells | Number tab) must be set to
Fraction.
2. The cell must have a fraction somewhere in it (such as 1/2.)
3. Microsoft Office Importers Import stacked fractions from Excel. checkbox must
be turned on.
4. The MicroStation font must include a symbol for that stacked fraction.
5. More than one cell must be copied to the clipboard.
6. MicroStations Element | Text Styles | Fractions checkbox must be turned on.
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Spaces between tab stops:

When a tab character is encountered on the clipboard, Microsoft Office Importer inserts
spaces in the line. For each tab character imported, a set of n spaces is placed in line
where n is equal to the number of characters in this Microsoft Office Importer setting.
Tabs are only processed when importing from Word documents and then only if the
Import with V7 text nodes is checked on.
Note: If you insert tabs in a Word document that has the left indent set, pressing the
<Tab> key results in moving the left indent to the next tab stop. That is, additional tab
characters will not be inserted to the left of the line.
Height of a single line will be nnn% of text height.

The height of a line of text should be greater than the text height in order to increase
readability. If line height is the same as the text height, one line is pressed up against the
next. The default for this field is 150%, which usually gives a very readable result. For
Excel imports, this setting applies only to cells with text that wrap in the cell.
Symbology
Color:
To select a color that is different from the source document color and the MicroStation
active color, check this option and use the color picker to select any color for your pasted
text.
Weight:
To select a weight that is different from the source document weight and the
MicroStation active weight, check this option and use the weight picker to select the
weight for your pasted text.
Style:
To specify a line style attribute for your text, check this option and use the style picker to
select the line style for your pasted text.
Level:
The Level field contains the level for text placement. To change it, just type in another
valid level number.
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Handling unselected Symbology settings

You have two options for handling unselected Symbology settings. The screen shot
below and the following sections explain how to use these options.
Take unselected settings from source document

When you do not select exact color or weight in the options above, choose this option to
always take these settings from your source document.
Take unselected settings from active symbology

When you do not select exact color or weight in the options above, choose this option to
always take these settings from MicroStation active symbology.
Attributes
Modify these attributes to change bold weight the angle of italicized text.
Bold Weight
Modifying this value specifies Microsoft Office Importer to use this setting for imported
text with a bold style.
Italic slant
Modifying this value causes Microsoft Office Importer to add a slant attribute to
imported text.
The Size tab

Use the Size tab to set the text scale factor for data pasted into
MicroStation.
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Name
The Name field gives you the opportunity to create named pairs of text height and text
width values. These values are available to you when pasting documents into
MicroStation through the Paste Excel data into MicroStation dialog box.
Note: The Named text size: option on the Paste... dialog box will display and make
named text sizes are defined in the current Microsoft Office Importer settings.
Text height:
The Text height field gives you the translation factor from text point size in Microsoft
Office to text character height in MicroStation master units.
The default scale of 1.00000 gives a one point to one master unit ratio.
Examples:
With scale 1.00000:
8-point text pastes at 8 master units.
10-point text pastes as 10 master units.
With a scale of 0.60000:
8-point text pastes as 4.8 master units. (8 x 0.6)
10-point text pastes as 6 master units. (10 x 0.6)
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Text width:
The Text width field gives you the translation factor from text point size in Microsoft
Office to text character width in MicroStation master units.
The default scale of 0.80000 gives a one point to 0.8 master unit ratio.
Examples:
With scale 0.80000:
8-point text pastes at 6.4 master units.
10-point text pastes as 8 master units.
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Text ratio lock

The text ratio lock maintains a saved ratio between text height and width.
When using the ratio lock, if either height or width changes, the other number changes to
maintain the same ratio.
To set or change the ratio, unlock the text ratio lock icon by clicking on it. Change width
and height so as to obtain the desired ratio. Then click <Update> to apply the changes.
After you set the ratio, you can now close the lock icon, change the width or height and
expect the ratio to be maintained.
Add
<Add> button allows you add a name to the list of height/width pairs.
Remove
<Remove> button will delete a named pair from the list of height/width pairs.
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Update
<Update> button will update height and width values that have been modified for the
highlighted pair.
Move Up and Move Down
<Move Up> and <Move Down> allows you to change the order in which the named pairs
are displayed within the list.
Non-text area height: and Non-text area width:

Non-text area height times Text height and Non-text area width times Text
height determine the relationship between text and non-text factors like line spacing,
spreadsheet cell size and page margins.
We include these scales because there is not a precise tile size relationship to a font in
MicroStation and a Windows font even when the font you import is apparently the same.
This setting allows you to compensate for that difference while maintaining precise
MicroStation text heights during the paste.
These Non-text Area factors do NOT influence the size of text in MicroStation but
determine the scale of related non-text features such as line spacing and page margins.
The default values of 1.3 give the best results in most cases when using fonts of the same
name in both the Microsoft application and MicroStation. When mapping a TrueType
font like Arial to a MicroStation fixed width font like Working, higher values will
usually give better results due to the inherent differences between these two fonts. A few
quick trial pastes will determine the best value to use.
Word wrap
If text is too long for the cell width, the following rules apply:
1. If the cell formatting option in Excel includes "Word wrap", then text in the cell is
always wrapped.
2. If word wrap is not selected and the adjacent cell is empty, then text overflows into
the next cell.
3. If the adjacent cell is not empty, then text is truncated.
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How to compute cell height when pasting from Excel

Cell height in the MicroStation design file depends on several factors.
Note: In all cases, if the computed height for different cells of the same table row is
different, the maximum value for all cells of the row is used.
A precise row height is defined in the Excel spreadsheet. To check row height, use the
Excel Format | Row | Height menu selection as in the images below.
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The formula for cell height in the design file is as follows:

CellHeightMS = RowHeight * TextScale * NonTextHeight
where
CellHeightMS - the height of the cell in MicroStation in master units
RowHeight - precise row height define d in the source application
TextScale - text height scale setting value, mu/pt (default 1.000)
NonTextHeight - non-text area height (default 1.300)
When using settings as in the images above, the formula becomes:

12.75 * 1.00000 * 1.30000 = 16.575 master units cell height in design file.
How to compute cell height when pasting Microsoft Word tables

Two factors in Microsoft Word documents can affect the outcome, cell height and
allowable minimum height.
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The default case

In most Microsoft Word files, cell height and allowable minimum height are not
defined in the source application. This is the default case for Microsoft Word. In this case
CellHeightMS = TextHeight * TextScale * HeightOfSingleLineFactor
where
TextHeight - height of the text in the source document in points
TextScale - text height scale setting value, mu/pt (mu is short for master units,
pt is short for points).
HeightOfSingleLineFactor - value of Height of a single line setting in the

Formatting tab (see image below. default is 150%)
Example:
If you paste a table from Microsoft Word with 10-point text using Microsoft
Office Importer default settings, the cell height will be 15 master units.
10 pt * 1 mu/pt * 150% = 15 master units cell height in the design file.
With 12-point text, again using the default settings, the cell height will be 18 master
units.
12 pt * 1 mu/pt * 150% = 18 master units cell height in the design file
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When cell height is defined exactly in the source document

Sometimes a cell height is defined exactly in the Word document. To check this,
highlight one or more cells in the table and select Table | Cell Height and Width... in
the Microsoft Word main menu.
In that case, the formula becomes the same as the formula for Excel spreadsheets when a
precise row height is defined.
CellHeightMS = CellHeight * TextScale * NonTextHeight
where
CellHeight - precise cell height defined in source application
TextScale - text height scale setting value, mu/pt
NonTextHeight - non-text height setting value
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When a minimum height is defined in the source document

When a minimum height is defined in the Word document, the program uses the larger of
the At least height or the computed height as described in the default case above.
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Chapter 11 Bor ders Settings Category
The Borders settings box

The Borders settings box contains some additional options that apply to pasting
spreadsheet information. Table Lines refer to the spreadsheet cell border lines.
Border lines:
Use the Border lines: option to control the handling of cell borders and grid lines.
Note: Excel does not place borders on cells by default. Cell borders can be applied
through Excels Format | Cells | Borders box. Borders are user-definable.
Chapter 11 Borders Settings Category
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As in source
When you select As in source, you will get borders displaying as they are displayed in
the source document. The cell grid lines will not be imported.
Always
When you select Always, every cell will be outlined by grid lines or border lines in the
design file. The user-defined borders override any grid lines in the source document.
Never
Select Never, to turn off all cell outlinesneither borders nor grid lines will be
imported.
Import diagonal border lines defined in source.

If your source Excel spreadsheet has diagonal border lines defined in it, checking this
option on will ensure those diagonal border lines are imported into MicroStation.
Technical Note: Expect your imports to slow down if you turn this option on as the
diagonal border line information isnt on the clipboard it has to be requested from
Excel directly, which can be slow.
Shift Text in cells by nn% of the current line height

With this option you can control the vertical placement of text inside the cell. The
percentage is based on current line height. Shift will be up or down depending on
alignment. Text aligned on the bottom will be shifted up, while text aligned on the top
will shift down.
Import filled cells from Excel

Enabling this option, Microsoft Office Importer will import all filled cells from an Excel
spreadsheet.
Symbology
Use the options in this area to set the Symbology attributes for your border lines when
you paste data into your active design file.
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Color:
To select a color that is different from the source document color and the MicroStation
active color, check this option and use the color picker to select any color for imported
borders and grid lines.
Weight
To select a weight that is different from the source document weight and the
MicroStation active weight, check this option and use the weight picker to select the
weight for imported borders and grid lines.
Style
To select a line style that is different from the source document line style and the
MicroStation active style, check this option and use the style picker to select the line style
for imported borders and grid lines.
Level
The Level field contains the level for imported borders and grid lines placement. To
change it, just type in another valid level number.
When you do not select color, weight or line style
Options for handling unselected settings.
Take un-selected settings from source document.

When you do not select exact color, weight or line style in the options above, choose this
option to always take these settings from your source document. This is the default.
Take un-selected settings from active symbology

When you do not select exact color, weight or line style in the options above, choose this
option to always take these settings from MicroStation active symbology.
Chapter 12 Import Link Settings Category
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Chapter 12 Imp ort Link Settings

Category
The Import Link Settings box

Here you can control various aspects of the link that will be created to your source
documents when you paste information into MicroStation with Microsoft Office
Importer.
Note: Microsoft Word and Excel information can be linked. Access database
information cannot be linked.
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Create a link to the original document.

Select Create a link to the original document. to create a live link between the pasted
data and the source document. When you select this option and save your settings, it
becomes the default.
Whatever you select for this option will display in the Paste Excel data into
MicroStation box and can be changed for that single paste at the time of the paste.
Selections that you make in the Paste Excel data into MicroStation box apply only to
the current paste and will not change your default settings.
An option in the Manage box allows you to unlink any pasted elements at a later
time.
Important note: After pasting from a Microsoft Word document, the source document
must be saved in order to establish a valid link.
Update automatically when design file opens

Select Update automatically when design file opens. (the default) to paste your
information with an update status of Automatic. This will cause Microsoft Office
Importer to update your linked file automatically when the design file is opened in
MicroStation. Only linked data with an update status of Automatic will be processed
this way.
Un-select Update automatically when design file opens. to paste with an update status
of Manual. With Manual update status, the pasted data can be updated via the
<Update> button in the Manage Import Link box. It will not update automatically
when the design file opens.
At the time of any individual paste, the Automatic update status for that paste can be
set on or off in any of the Paste... boxes. After placement, you can also change the link
status from Automatic to Manual or vice versa via the Manage Import Link box,
accessed via the Manage button on the Microsoft Office Import toolbar.
In order to use Automatic Update, Microsoft Office Importer must be running in the
background when the design file is opened. This is set up for you automatically when you
load Microsoft Office Importer.
The next section shows how to set this up if it has been removed. It is very simple.
Chapter 12 Import Link Settings Category
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Set up for automatic updating

If you want Microsoft Office Importer to update your pasted text from the source
document automatically when you open the design file, your axiom.cfg file should
contain a line for loading office.ma. If it does not, you can modify your axiom
configuration file. The following steps show how to do this.
1. Close MicroStation.
2. Locate your axiom.cfg file in your MicroStation \config\appl\ directory and
open it in a text editor such as Notepad.
3. At the bottom of your axiom.cfg file, type in or paste the following line:
MS_DGNAPPS > $(AXI)office/office.ma
4. Save the axiom.cfg file and close it.
Unload Microsoft Office Importer when automatic updates

are completed.
Check this option if you want to have Microsoft Office Importer unload after
automatically updating a design file opened with MicroStation Manager.
Note: It is recommended that you leave this option unchecked. If you select this option,
you will not get automatic update when opening a file with File | Open... or RD=
commands.
Highlight color, Highlight line weight and highlight line style:

Select the highlight color, weight and line style that will be used by the Info function to
display the status of the link and the path to the source document.
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Chapter 13 Tro ubleshooting
Formatting Options
Microsoft Office applications have many powerful formatting options that can be used to
control the appearance of text in your Office documents. It is not possible for Microsoft
Office Importer to duplicate all of these formatting options. In fact, some of the
formatting information for these options is not placed in the Windows clipboard when
you copy your text to the clipboard. Because of this, Microsoft Office Importer cannot
always format your imports exactly as they are in the Office document. This section
describes specific conditions that can be caused by this lack of formatting information.
Please review this section when your import is substantially different than what you
expected.
Tables
In Microsoft Excel, text overlaps cell border
Text has an inherent problem that the fonts available in MicroStation may not match
those used in Windows. Even when using fonts of the same size, MicroStation can use a
different size for the space character. This makes it difficult to correctly gauge cell width.
If you do not specify a font in the Font settings tab, the default font will be used. This
may produce unexpected results.
For the best results use the Advanced font mapping option in the Fonts tab of your
text settings. Find the source font in the list of font families displayed on the left of the
image below.
Chapter 13 Troubleshooting
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See the font settings section in this guide for a description of how to select a different
font and how to import a Windows font into MicroStation.
You can also enlarge the cells by increasing the Non-text Area Height and Non-text
Area Width settings.
In Microsoft Excel, cell contents print on top of each other

When pasting from a spreadsheet, do cell contents print on top of each other? If you open
the Page Setup dialog for that file in Microsoft Excel, you may see that the scaling is
adjusted to something other than 100% of normal size. This causes all the sizes in the
clipboard to be changed except for font size. If you turn on the borders in your cells, you
can see that the pasted cells overlap because they are too small.
Just change the scaling in the source file to 100% and everything should be pasted
correctly.
Microsoft Excel produces other anomalies

According to Microsoft Engineers, Excel is subject to inconspicuous file corruptions that
result in incorrectly pasted data in Microsoft Office Importer (i.e. mismatched lines,
overlapping, wrong sized text). Microsoft recommends copying the cells in question into
a new workbook using only Edit | Paste Special | Values and reapplying the formatting
to the new workbook, or selecting Edit | Paste Special | All to preserve the formatting.
This will correct the problem in the majority of situations.
Grid lines or borders do not display

No grid lines or borders will be imported into MicroStation unless:
A. Borders are selected in the source file and the Table | Import lines: option is set
to As in source; or
B. Table | Import lines: is set to Always.
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Height of grid lines or text is not exact

The exact formula for computing cell height can be found in the General Settings
section of this document.
If after following the formula, the cell height is still off by a small amount, this may be
due to the unit settings of the specific file. For example, a design has the following
settings:
12 IN per FT and 254 Positional Units per IN.
The resolution of this design is 12*254=3048.
In this file, we cannot create an element with an exact height of .12 master units. Given a
value 0.12 for cell height will produce a result of 3048*0.12=365.76 This is not an
integer value, so a value of 365 or 366 will be used by MicroStation, which gives a value
365/3048 = 0.11975 or 366/3048 = 0.12008.
Microsoft Word documents

The following section covers troubleshooting data for doing pastes from Word
documents.
Pasting of highly formatted document or document containing

numbered lists is not perfect.
To get the best results, turn off the Import paragraphs as text nodes setting before
pasting. You will see this option in the Paste clipboard contents box that appears after
you click the Paste... button.
Additionally, problems can occur when pasting a highly formatted document created with
Word XP from Word 2000 or Word 97. Open the document in Word XP and paste from
there.
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Numbered lists have no space after the numbers.

Example:
1. This is the first line and it is short.
2. This is line number 2 and it is also short.
3. This is the third line.
Does your sample paste look like the image below?
The usual cause is that the text indenting space in the Word file is relatively small and the
font in MicroStation is wider than the one in Word. Handle this by increasing the text
indent in the Numbered list properties of the Word document and you will see the space
emerging.
Here is how to handle this:
1. Highlight some of the numbered text in the source document and right click with the
mouse.
2. Select Bullets and Numbering from the pull down menu.
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3. In the box that appears, you will have several formatting selections under the
Numbered tab. Select one that gives a larger indentation as in the image below.
Then click <OK>.
4. Before you paste, be sure you turn off the toggle for Import paragraphs as text
nodes. in Microsoft Office Importers Paste clipboard contents box.
Your next paste should look more like this:
Bullets are imported as fractions

Frequently a symbol font is used for bullets in Word documents. This is even though the
lines containing the bullets are formatted with a commonly used font like Times Roman
or Arial. When you import the bullet list and you do not have a symbol font available in
MicroStation, font 0 will be used for the bullet. Font 0 contains many characters that are
stacked fractions and this is most likely what you will get rather than the bullet symbol.
Or you might get another character other than a fraction. You can correct this in one of
two ways.
You can use the MicroStation Change Text Attributes tool to change the font on the
stacked fraction character after the import is completed. Just change the font to Times
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Roman for example and the bullet will be displayed. This will work in some cases
because the numeric code for a bullet in many fonts is the same numeric code in the
Symbol font.
The other option is to have Microsoft Office Importer convert the font for the bullet
character from Symbol to Times Roman when you import the text. You do this by
selecting the Microsoft Office Importer tool Settings | Text and the Font tab, then
change the Normal: and Bold: fields to point to the Times Roman font. Your settings
should look like this.
Bullets or list numbers lost

Sometimes when you import and later update a list of bullet or numbered items the last
bullet or number is lost. This is due to an issue with the Windows Object Linking and
Embedding (OLE) protocol. You can prevent this with the following procedure.
When highlighting and copying Word text ending with a bullet or number list you must
have a second paragraph mark after the last list item. But you only need to highlight
through the paragraph mark at the end of the last list item. This is illustrated in the
following image.
When you do this, subsequent edits and updates of the imported text will result in the last
item keeping its bullet or number.
Tip: You can view the paragraph marks in a Word document as in the image above by
selecting the menu items Tools | Options | View and select the All checkbox under
Nonprinting characters.
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Hanging indents overlap

To handle problems with overlap in hanging indents, open the document in Word and put
your cursor in the section of text with a hanging indent. Then go to Format |
Paragraph | Indents and Spacing. Increase the value in the Indentation By: field as
needed.
Text size is inconsistent with original document.

When a document is overcrowded with styles and these styles are strongly
interconnected, the internal Microsoft Word conversion to RTF format can contain errors
in the font size used. Try copying the text to a new blank Microsoft Word document and
eliminate some styles before attempting to paste into MicroStation again.
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Each imported word is a separate element.

The usual cause is that the selected area has been formatted with the Justify option. See
the image below. When you format with this option, each word gets copied to the
clipboard as a separate element. Change the justification of the document to handle this
problem.
Tables in Word documents import with cell height too narrow.

Cell height squashed down to the size of the text is usually the result of a specific
corruption in the Word document that can be easily tested for and fixed.
Highlight a row in the table. Then select Table | Cell Height and Width from the
Microsoft Word menu. The dialog that opens may look like the image below. The row
height At least has been set to 7.2pt although the text size is 10pt. This is the field that
MicroStation uses to determine cell height. Increase the At: size to handle the problem.
Paragraph Indenting
At times it appears as if Microsoft Office Importer is not processing tab characters that
you inserted into your Word document. There are two possible reasons for this.
One way the tabs will be ignored is when pasting with the Import paragraphs as text
nodes paste option checked. To handle this, ensure the Import paragraphs as text
nodes option is Off in the Paste Clipboard Contents options.
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Another reason relates to an option in Microsoft Word that sets the left indent with the
tab key. If this option is checked, pressing the tab key with the insertion point at the left
side of a line will move the indent point to the next tab stop. In this case, a tab character
is not placed in the line. To turn off this Word option, go to the Word menu Tools |
Options and select the Edit tab. Uncheck the option Tabs and backspaces set left
indent.
With this Word option checked, the Microsoft Office Importer Settings | Text |
Formatting [tab] | Spaces between tab stops option has no effect on the import because
there are no tab characters in the imported text.
Tabs in Word documents not lining up

Using tabs for formatting in Microsoft Word is unreliable. Changing the value of tab size
in Word as well as changing font properties will break formatting in a document
formatted via tabs. For this reason, we recommend you use tables without borders instead
of tabs in Word.
Linking Options
You may find the linking options on the paste box are not checked and cannot be
selected. This condition occurs when you have closed the source document before pasting
the data copied from the source document.
Pasted text is one column of characters

This can occurs when using the User Defined width paste option. If the width specified
is less than the width of one character the paste width will default to the width of one
character. The paste will result in one long column of characters.
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Deleted text keeps re-appearing

When you paste text that is linked to a source document, a small point cell containing a
construction element (a zero length line) at the beginning of the pasted data contains the
link information. This element is invisible unless you have Constructions selected in
MicroStations View Attributes dialog as in the image below:
To permanently delete linked text and tables, turn Graphic Group lock on before
deleting. This will pick up the construction element and the paste will be permanently
deleted.
Moved text keeps reverting to previous location

When you paste text that is linked to a source document, a small point cell containing a
construction element (a zero length line) at the top left of the pasted data contains the link
information. This element is invisible unless you have Constructions selected in
MicroStations View Attributes dialog as in the image below.
To move or rotate linked text and tables you must include the construction element in the
move. To do this, turn Graphic Group lock on before moving or rotating.
The paste does not update after editing the source

If the paste does not update after editing the source it may be because you failed to save
the source file after updating it. Save the source file and try the update again.
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Linked data contains a visible element at the start

This element, a point cell containing a zero length line holds information about the paste.
The zero length line is a construction element and can be made invisible by un-selecting
the MicroStation View Attributes | Construction option.
MicroStation hangs up during the paste

The most common cause is opening a file created with Word 97 in Windows XP and
trying to import it. Open the document in Word XP and import from there.
Field Codes
There are many field codes that can be inserted into Word documents and the list of field
codes differs with different versions of Word. Microsoft Office Importer must perform
special processing for each field code imported. Microsoft Office Importer cannot process
all field codes available in Word documents. Processing for the most frequently used
field codes has been implemented in Microsoft Office Importer. However, if a field code
is imported that is not recognized by Microsoft Office Importer, then that code will not be
included in the paste. You will have to interactively edit the text in MicroStation to insert
the missing text that resulted from the field code in the Word document.
Special characters print incorrectly

When you use an incorrect font, some characters may be substituted with unexpected
results. It is known that at least <, >, ~ and are not available in several standard
MicroStation fonts (you cant even type them in Place Text).
To import text without losing punctuation, set your word processor from smart quotes
(these are the quote marks just used) to "straight quotes". Then when you bring your text
in with Microsoft Office Importer it will retain the basic punctuation you had in the word
processor such as (double quotes) and ! (exclamation point), etc. The only exception is
if you are using a symbol font in MicroStation.
Clipboard is tied up
Once you have clicked the paste tool with valid data on the clipboard, it will be tied up by
Microsoft Office Importer.
The clipboard will be released as soon as its Microsoft Office Importers paste into your
design file is complete.
Other errors/problems not covered here

If you encounter errors not covered in this manual, send a detailed email to
Support@AxiomInt.com. Please include as much information about your operating
system, the problem that you are experiencing and exactly what you did when this
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problem occurred. Also make sure to include the version number of MicroStation and
Microsoft Office Importer that you are running.
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Chapter 14 We ll Make (Almost) Any

Enhancements You Want
We welcome your suggestions

Microsoft Office Importer is a powerful program. Nonetheless, we realize that you, a
skilled and creative MicroStation user, will think of ways in which it can be improved.
We invite you to tell us your ideas.
For ten years weve listened to you, the skilled MicroStation professional and have
implemented the features youve requested. Every widely acclaimed product weve ever
developed, including FileFixer, evolved in this manner.
Wed like to make Microsoft Office Importer perform every function you could ever
imagine such a product being able to do. We intend to make you such a satisfied
Microsoft Office Importer customer that you cant wait for the next user group meeting so
you can tell your friends and associates how much you like Microsoft Office Importer and
how strongly you recommend it.
Your suggestions on how to improve Microsoft Office Importer are most welcome.
Chapter 15 New Features and Fixes
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Version 4.2a 16 October 2008

Improved: Greatly improved handling of tabs. Now Word docs containing tabs should
look better than ever when imported into design files.
Fixed: Fixed a problem introduced by Microsoft Office (Excel) 2003 Service Pack 3
(SP3) reported by multiple users. This version is recommended for anyone using
Microsoft Office 2003 SP3.
Version 4.1b 18 April 2008

Fixed: Fixed chart scaling so charts now come into MicroStation at the correct size
relative to normal spreadsheet data (cells). This makes it easy to get charts scaled just
right. Its a major improvement. Read the following technical note for more.
Technical note on chart scaling change: A big part of this change is that we now
scale charts relative to master units instead of positional units. But this means charts
pasted in design files using old versions of Microsoft Office Importer are going to get
really big the next time Microsoft Office Importer updates them.
If you already have charts pasted into design files by Microsoft Office Importer you will
need to re-paste them with this new version (4.1b) so they will be scaled properly.
This has absolutely no impact on imported cells from Excel it only applies to
imported charts from Excel.
New: Added support for diagonal border lines when importing XLS files.
Fixed: A problem upgrading INI files from older versions of Office.
Fixed: Office mishandled paths containing an exclamation point '!'.
Fixed: Charts were not working for some non-English language versions of Excel.
Fixed: A line was shooting off beyond the boundary of a chart in one customers XLS
file.
Fixed: An abort handling two Office 2007 XLS files from two customers.
Fixed: The Sheet Name: field in Manage Import Link box is now disabled for DOC
links as this field only applies to XLS links.
Fixed: Fixed an unreported bug that would leave an instance of EXCEL.EXE open after
updating a pasted chart in a design file.
Clarified users guide in many places.
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Version 4.1a 15 June 2007

Microsoft Office Importer can now import Excel charts into MicroStation. Microsoft
Office Importer can also update the imported chart if the source spreadsheet changes.
Version 4.0b 12 January 2007

Added new Axiom menu options for Microsoft Office Importer. Now, all of Microsoft
Office Importers main functions can be accessed from the Axiom menu.
Made many user interface improvements to make Microsoft Office Importer easier than
ever to use.

Modified the OFFICE UPDATEALL key-in command so that it now requires a data
point to accept the key-in.
After clicking the <Paste clipboard data into MicroStation> button the Paste ______
data into MicroStation dialog now dynamically changes depending on the Microsoft
Office program the data is coming from. For example, it will read Paste Excel data into
MicroStation with Excel and Paste Word data into MicroStation with Word.
Enhanced the use of justifcation in pasted text. Microsoft Office Importer now uses the
same justification setting as that of the Excel file.
Modified various text strings for greater clarity.
Version 3.9c 22 September 2006

Certain symbol characters were not being properly imported into design files. This was
fixed. V7-only.
Version 3.9b 4 August 2006

Added the key-in command OFFICE UPDATEALL so users can automatically update
all of the links inside their active design file without closing and reopening it.
Updated the Your settings have changed box that prompts user to save settings when
closing Microsoft Office Importer.
Fixed a few minor bugs.
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Version 3.9a 16 September 2005

Added the ability for Microsoft Office Importer to import fractions from Microsoft Excel
as stacked fractions in MicroStation.
Added support for Microsoft Words All caps font format (Format | Font... | All
caps.)
Version 3.8a 10 June 2005

Microsoft Office Importer can now match the settings from existing links. Settings will
now be taken from the pasted data and automatically entered into the active Microsoft
Office Importer settings.
In rotated views, filled Excel cells would come in unrotated. This has been fixed.
Version 3.7a 17 March 2005

Added the ability to maintain cell background or fill color when importing Excel
spreadsheets into MicroStation.
Microsoft Office Importer now gives users the ability to change the Excel spreadsheet
sheet name in existing links. Previously, if the Excel sheet name was changed, the entire
spreadsheet would have to be re-imported into a design file with Microsoft Office
Importer. Now, through the Manage Import Link box, a user can specify the new sheet
name, click the <Apply> button and thus reestablish the link between MicroStation and
the spreadsheet with the renamed sheet.
Version 3.6b 31 December 2004

Microsoft Office Importer now supports Style as a Text attribute.
Version 3.6a 23 December 2004

While using the Manage Import Link function, users will now be able to permanently
modify the symbology of their existing spreadsheets or documents. Color, weight, style
and level attributes can now be modified even after a spreadsheet or document has been
imported into a design file.
Enhanced handling of graphic groups within design files.
Page 96
Version 3.5a 30 September 2004

Added two new font handling options:
Ability for user to specify a user-defined font for all imported text
Ability to use the active font at time of paste for all imported text
Users can now change the range of existing Excel links. This feature is especially
important to users who add new columns or rows to their spreadsheets but do not use
named ranges in Excel.
Users can now define a list of named pairs of text height and width values. That list is
available at paste time, which is especially valuable to users who work at multiple scales
and thus need quick access to different height/width settings for their imported text.
We now refer to Borders not Table Lines.
We added a lock to the settings for text height and width that you can use to
automatically maintain the ratio between these numbers.
The Link Information box was not always displayed rotated when the linked elements
were displayed in a rotated view. This was fixed.

In this version we added support for a MicroStation configuration variable, OFFICE_INI.
You can use it to store a directory path or full file spec for Microsoft Office Importer
settings files. This was requested by users who run Microsoft Office Importer from a
server enables them to save and automatically reload their own settings.
We added support for hairline borders in Excel files. Previously they did not display in
MicroStation.
There were some instances of text truncation when the text size in an Excel paste was set
too large. We handled this problem.

This version supports long file names and file names containing spaces in links.
We implemented basic Excel XP support.
In response to popular demand, we changed the default settings file that is loaded when
you open Microsoft Office Importer to be the last settings file used.
In previous versions, Microsoft Office Importer would only update a paste automatically
when the file was opened from the MicroStation Manager box. Now it will also update
when using a File | Open... or MicroStation RD command from inside MicroStation.
As part of this feature we changed the default of the option Unload Microsoft Office
Importer automatically when automatic updates are completed. This option now defaults
to <Off>. This allows Microsoft Office Importer to be active during File | Open... and
RD load activities subsequent to the opening of a design design file.
Page 97
The settings category name Table was changed to Table lines to be more descriptive.
When pasting into a rotated view, the paste was occurring at a distance from the cursor
position. This was fixed.
There was a problem with Windows 2000 pastes when track changes was turned on
during the paste. Sometimes deleted text appeared in the pasted text. This was handled.

The default setting for the non-text area width was changed to 1.3. This was done to
match a change in version 3.3a that improved the spacing of text in cells.
The tags that save settings information were changed to not have graphic group numbers
assigned. The association of the tags to the imported elements ensures that the tags are
manipulated as part of the graphic group. This prevents a problem where the settings
information for linking was lost when an imported area was copied and then updated.
A formatting problem was fixed where lines of text imported from Word documents
would have a wrong character spacing where text formatting changed from one style to
another.
A problem with the left side of an import not aligning with a tentative snap point was
fixed.

The Table settings option to shift text in cells by a percentage factor was not working.
This was corrected in this version.
The File | Save Settings of Microsoft Office Importer was saving the active view
settings of MicroStation. This problem was corrected.
Occasionally, the same graphic group number was being assigned to multiple pastes in
MicroStation. This problem was handled.
Spacing and wrapping of text in cells was improved. Also, some instances of unnecessary
text truncation in cells were corrected.
The following Import Link settings are now set to On by default:
Create links when imported data is pasted.
Unload Microsoft Office Importer when automatic updates are completed.
This version of Microsoft Office Importer does not yet fully support Office XP. You may
notice some formatting differences.
Page 98
Version 3.2a 22 February 2002

Microsoft Office Importer will now maintain the text justification of the source
document.
You can now import colored text and borders as well as different weights for text and
borders and different line styles for Borders. You now have the option to use color,
weight and line-style from the source document or from the MicroStation active
symbology. Additionally, you can select specific color, weight, line style and level for all
of your pastes regardless of active symbology.
We added special mapping for some characters unavailable in MicroStation fonts, such as
single and double smart quotes.
Grid lines were previously imported in pieces of small line elements. Additionally some
lines were placed twice. Both problems have been fixed. You can expect to see new
pastes creating smaller design files. Also, updating linked pastes made with earlier
versions of Microsoft Office Importer will decrease your file size after compressing.
Now, the link information of pasted text is saved in a point cell instead of in a
construction ellipse. This provides the ability to maintain any rotation or rescaling of
pasted text even after updating.
This version of Microsoft Office Importer features the ability to create a link to text that
has been pasted even though the linking options were not originally selected. In the past,
Microsoft Office Importer pasted borders only if they were defined in the source
document. You now can set options to always import borders or never do so.
If you change your mind about a paste, right clicking after analyzing clipboard contents
will cancel the paste and release the clipboard.
The Link Information display now uses active MicroStation text settings. Information
displayed in this box is not proportional to the size of the paste anymore.
We added an option to automatically unload Microsoft Office Importer after updating a
file that is loading.
We fixed a problem with Microsoft Office Importer incorrectly processing right or
centered horizontal aligned text when this text did not fit in the cell.
Version 3.1c 28 November 2001

Version 3.1c corrects a problem that originated in version 3.1b. After updating, linked
spreadsheets sometimes displayed with a grid line weight of 12. This has been fixed.
Version 3.1c also repairs existing links that have this problem.
In 3D files, Microsoft Office Importer would always place elements at zero (0) on the Z
axis. This has been fixed.
Page 99
Version 3.1b 31 October 2001

The default option for importing paragraphs with text nodes is changed to Off. This
gives a better-looking paste for highly formatted documents.
We handled a problem with text nodes being placed when they were not needed. In this
case, they were also numbered incorrectly.
When pasting data from a server, if the date on the server was a bit later than the date on
the local drive, some problems with updating could occur. This has been handled.

This version has significantly enhanced formatting capabilities. Weve added many of the
features most requested by our customers. Here are some of its new formatting
capabilities:
Text rotated by plus or minus 90 now appears rotated in MicroStation.
Centered text in horizontally merged cells now appears centered.
You now have an option to turn cell borders on or off without modifying the source
document.
Improved vertical placement of text within vertically merged cells.
Speed of operation has been improved. This new version, despite its greatly increased
formatting capabilities, has tested faster than the previous version in every speed test.
This is remarkable considering the magnitude and quantity of new formatting features
incorporated into this version.
Some versions of Excel produced columns that were too narrow when using default
settings. Default settings can now be used to produce a column width that more closely
matches the source document.
We handled a problem with text in cells not always wrapping properly, but extending into
an adjacent empty cell.
Column headers containing formulas sometimes merged incorrectly. This has been fixed.
When importing from Word documents, hanging indents were not properly handled. This
is fixed.
Version 3.0a 17 July 2001

This new version of Microsoft Office Importer features an option to paste text and
spreadsheets with active links to the source documents.
You can now update linked text and spreadsheets from the source document. We have
included options for automatic updating when the design file is opened or for manual
updating by clicking an <Update> button when you want to synchronize with the source
file.
Page 100
This version includes a Manage box with functions for bringing up the source
document for updating, updating the design file from the source document, or dropping
the link. It provides an option for changing from manual to automatic update or vice
versa. Additionally, you can correct a broken link by browsing to the new location of a
source document.
For linked text, a new Information icon on the main toolbox displays the extents of the
linked data, path to the source document and link type.
We handled a problem in that clipboard information was being deleted after the first paste
from a Word document. This data is now saved on the clipboard so that you can make as
many pastes as you want without refreshing the clipboard.
Version 2.0b 22 March 2001

We added formatting for tabs and numbered lists in Microsoft Word documents.
We added support for Microsoft Access.
We also added width and height scaling options in the General settings dialog that also
appear and can be modified in the Paste Excel data into MicroStation box just before
pasting.
Options to set height and width scaling factors have also been added for non-text features
such as Excel cell size and page margins.
Version 2.0a 19 January 2001

Microsoft Office Importer 2.0a is a complete re-write of the software that results in
significant functional improvements. Prior versions of Microsoft Office Importer used
Enhanced Meta-File (EMF) data from the Clipboard. This version uses Rich Text Format
(RTF) data, which results in a tremendous increase in the amount of data, which can be
imported.
This format allows for superior appearance of special characters, italics, underline etc and
for predictable, accurate size translations to MicroStation text.
This format also allows much better results when importing custom Excel borders.
Microsoft Office Importer is now certified to work with Microsoft Office 2000.

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Users Guide

Microsoft Office Importer

Copyright 19962008 Axiom.

MicroStation is a registered trademark of Bentley Systems, Incorporated.

Chapter 1 Overview ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9

Chapter 3 Uninstalling --------------------------------------------------------------------18

Chapter 4 Quick Start ---------------------------------------------------------------------19

Chapter 5 Using Microsoft Office Importer ----------------------------------------34

Chapter 6 Pasting clipboard data and Excel charts into MicroStation----38

Microsoft Office Importer

Text height and width ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 41

Chapter 7 Managing Imported Links -------------------------------------------------44

Chapter 8 Import Link Information----------------------------------------------------50

Chapter 9 Microsoft Office Importer Settings -------------------------------------51

Chapter 10 Text Settings Category ---------------------------------------------------57

Microsoft Office Importer

Chapter 11 Borders Settings Category ----------------------------------------------74

Chapter 12 Import Link Settings Category -----------------------------------------77

Chapter 13 Troubleshooting ------------------------------------------------------------80

Linked data contains a visible element at the start--------------------------------------- 90

Chapter 14 Well Make (Almost) Any Enhancements You Want -------------92

Chapter 15 New Features and Fixes--------------------------------------------------93

Chapter 1 Ove rview

Features of Microsoft Office Importer

Maintaining links to source documents with ability to update imported data

Obtain clean, predictable, presentation quality output.

Importing large blocks of information with a single paste.

Automatic mapping of Microsoft fonts to MicroStation fonts

Stacked fraction support.

Exact mapping of Microsoft point size to MicroStation text size.

Allowing pasting of paragraphs as easily editable text nodes. While MicroStation

Options to use symbology of the source document, MicroStation active symbology,

Microsoft Office Importer

Users Guide setup

Definition of the word clipboard

Chapter 2 Inst allation

Before You Install

The latest Axiom product CD; and

Typical Installation from CD

Microsoft Office Importer

4. Select MicroStation V7 or MicroStation V8 and click <Next>.

8. Choose I have a floppy disk from Axiom. and click <Next>.

Microsoft Office Importer

10. To proceed with default selections click <Next>.

11. Click <Next> to proceed with the installation.

Microsoft Office Importer

12. The <Next>button is grayed-out unless you accept the agreement.

Microsoft Office Importer

Chapter 3 Uni nstalling

Uninstalling Axiom products

3. Choose Select all. or Select components to uninstall. If you choose Select

Chapter 4 Quick Start

Chapter 4 Qui ck Start

Quick Start Objectives

Microsoft Office Importer

4. Answer Yes to the Alert message that appears.

Chapter 4 Quick Start

Tutorial #2 Paste a spreadsheet using default options

Microsoft Office Importer

Tutorial #3 Adding or eliminating grid lines

Chapter 4 Quick Start

Microsoft Office Importer

Tutorial #4 Pasting Word documents