To prevent this behaviour replace all the "paragraph marks" and "line breaks" with "$$$$"; copy and paste your table normally to Excel then replace the $$$$ by the ALT+Enter line feeds. Presto!
Here is how:
- In most versions of Word search and replace click More / Special / "paragraph mark".
- Click in the replace box and type $$$$.
- Click Replace All.
- Repeat to replace "manual line break" with $$$$.
- Select the table or cells and choose Copy (or CTRL+C).
- Switch to Excel.
- Click on the top left cell where the table will be pasted.
- Choose Paste (or CTRL+V)
Warning: if you want your text to look like the rest of the Excel document, remove the formatting by using Paste Special / Unicode Text. - Search and replace the $$$$ by CTRL+j *
- Admire your Excel document, the text is in the same location as it was in the original Word table.
Related background info:
- Copying a table from Word in Excel Miscellaneous
- Sources: Pasting Table from Word - microsoft.public.excel.misc | Google Groups* Formal method of replacing $$$$ by ALT+Enter: the result is the same as above, just more precice technically. Search and replace the $$$$ by ALT+0010 (you must use the numeric keypad to type 0010, and you will see nothing on the screen, but it is there trust me).
- To analyze characters in Excel http://www.cpearson.com/excel/CellView.aspx
- Excel Tips, Excel Tutorials and Excel Techniques
