Pasting a chart as object between instances of Excel

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inews@questuscorp.com - 30 Jun 2008 01:48 GMT

A small peculiarity that I'm hoping someone can help me clear up.

I have a number of large number of similar workbooks (different data
in each). They each have a number of charts. When I enhance a chart,
I then want to ensure that each workbook has the same type of chart.

Scenario 1
1. Open windows explorer
2. Double click workbook with new chart
3. Double click workbook with old chart
4. Select old chart and delete - there is a chart sheet with no chart
5. Select new chart and copy
6. Paste new chart in old chart's chart sheet - the new chart appears
and is identical to the copied one
7. Update source data references to refer to the workbook into which
the chart has been pasted
Result: the chart is a normal chart, updates with data changes. The 2
workbooks are open in a single instance of Excel.

Scenario 2
1. Open windows explorer
2. Double click workbook with new chart
3. Double click Excel shortcut to Open another instance of excel (if I
want to open a number of workbooks, I follow this procedure or the
combined size of the workbooks crashes a single instance of Excel)
4. Double click workbook with old chart - opens in second instance of
Excel
5. Follow delete, copy and paste procedure above
Result: The chart is pasted as a picture and never reflects the data
in its new home

Does anyone know "why is it so"?

Does anyone know how to paste a chart object between two instance of
excel wtihout it turning into a picture?

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Dave Peterson - 30 Jun 2008 02:00 GMT

That's the way excel and windows works.

If you want to keep it a chart, do the work in one instance of excel.

It works the same way with formulas converting to values (between multiple
instances), too.

> A small peculiarity that I'm hoping someone can help me clear up.
>
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
> Does anyone know how to paste a chart object between two instance of
> excel wtihout it turning into a picture?

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Dave Peterson

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inews@questuscorp.com - 30 Jun 2008 02:19 GMT

Thanks very much Dave. I think understand what you're saying.

A quick hypothetical? To confirm my understanding.

If a user had a workbook which consumed >50% of the resources of a
single instance, they would simply be unable to paste a chart as an
object in to another worbook. It would have to be created from
scratch.

Pasting a formula could be worked around by opening a single cell and
copying the text of the formula, but only one cell at a time.

> That's the way excel and windows works.
>
[quoted text clipped - 46 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

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Dave Peterson - 30 Jun 2008 03:14 GMT

That's the way it works for me.

But I'm not sure what that means--a workbook that consumes >50% of the
resources.

> Thanks very much Dave. I think understand what you're saying.
>
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> >
> > - Show quoted text -

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Dave Peterson

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inews@questuscorp.com - 30 Jun 2008 04:03 GMT

If I open >10 of my workbooks, Excel chokes and throws an error saying
that it doesn't have enough resources. If I open each in a separate
instance, I do not get the problem - yet.

The idea is that if the workbooks were large enough, the resources
error would be thrown when trying to open a second workbook. In which
case it seems as though it would be impossible to paste a chart out of
one of those workbooks as anything except a picture.

> That's the way it works for me.
>
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>
> - Show quoted text -

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Dave Peterson - 30 Jun 2008 11:30 GMT

If this is a problem, then not opening >10 workbooks at one time seems like a
way to avoid it.

If you have trouble with two large files, maybe open one, copy to a new
workbook. Close the large and then open the second large file and copy from the
new, small workbook to its real home.

> If I open >10 of my workbooks, Excel chokes and throws an error saying
> that it doesn't have enough resources. If I open each in a separate
[quoted text clipped - 80 lines]
> >
> > - Show quoted text -

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Dave Peterson

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