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Ankit B
March 5, 2020
Solved

Adding Lucidchart diagram to Microsoft Word

  • March 5, 2020
  • 24 replies
  • 644 views

I was trying to copy a lucidchart diagram to Word but it either pastes an older version of the diagram or just a blank box. The Lucidchart page shows a "Saving" notification but it does not finish saving for over an hour. If I refresh the lucidchart page the change is lost (not saved). How to fix this issue?

Best answer by Zuzia S

Hi ​@garrettb and ​@iodaconsulting, thank you for your posts and I am sorry for the inconvenience this is causing to your workflow!

As mentioned by my colleague above, this process is not formally guaranteed to function since it does depend on both Lucid and Microsoft. There may be something that occurred outside of Lucid’s control that prevents copy and paste from working on your device. 

As a workaround, have you tried exporting your document/document portion as a PNG (with transparent background) and adding that to your documents? Alternatively, you can use our Microsoft add-ins to insert your diagram into your document, although I understand that it might not be the most convenient solution if you are interested in inserting a specific part of your diagram. As another alternative, you can take a screenshot of your diagram’s given portion and then insert it in a Microsoft document.

Once again, I am very sorry for the trouble caused. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns!

Comments

Chase V
Lucid support team
March 5, 2020

Hi Ankit

Thanks for posting in the Lucidchart Community! I’m sorry for the trouble you are having with Lucidchart’s Microsoft integrations and am happy to help. Just to double-check that everything is properly set up from your side can you please check out our Microsoft Integrations article from the Lucidchart Help Center?

A couple of specific things are worth noting from this article:

  • The add-ins are only available for Word Online Word 2013 and 2016 Excel 2013 and 2016 and Power Point 2016. Online versions of Excel and Powerpoint as well as earlier versions of the desktop apps are not compatible with the add-in. If you are using a non-compatible version we would recommend exporting the diagram as an image and then inserting it into your document spreadsheet or presentation.
  • The diagram you insert is directly connected to your Lucidchart account. You must be connected to the internet to be able to edit the diagram or insert a diagram.
  • If you are experiencing performance issues with the add-in please try connecting to an alternate network.
  • Please try uninstalling and reinstalling the add-in (please note that if the add-in has been deployed by your admin you will be unable to uninstall).

I hope this helps! If you continue to experience issues please reply to this post and let me know!

shalini
June 4, 2021

I have the same problem. I have copied and pasted diagrams from lucidchart to powerpoint and microsoft word before. But now when I try doing it only a blank box gets pasted. Can you please help me out. I need this urgently for conducting my online classes

Leianne C
Lucid support team
June 4, 2021

Hi Shalini thanks for continuing this thread! The easiest way to insert Lucidchart diagrams into a Microsoft Word document is using our Microsoft Word add-in. You can learn more about how to install the add-in and insert your diagrams in this article from our Help Center.

If there is a specific part of a diagram you wish to insert I would recommend copying that part to a separate page in your Lucidchart document. After that please try exporting the page as an image and then inserting this image into your Word document. Hope this helps!

Jordi C
February 8, 2023

I have the same problem and I've read the solutions above. However these solutions are not very usefull because it takes a too long while to copy and paste to Word.

I've been copying and pasting from Lucidapp to Word for some months without any problem but today I begin with this strange behaviour.

For me Lucidapp is useless if I can't copy and paste to Word without using any kind of addin or exporting diagrams as images and so on. It worked before and I just want to know why it is not working anymore.

I tried connecting to other networks as well.

I will not continue with my subscription if I can't work in that way that I was working until today.

Thank you.

Phillip W
Lucid support team
February 8, 2023

Hey Jordi

Thank you for continuing this thread 🥳 Unfortunately although Copy and Paste from Lucid to Word may have worked at times it is not something we formally support. As Leianne stated above the easiest way to insert Lucidchart diagrams into a Microsoft Word document is using our Microsoft Word add-in. You can learn more about how to install the add-in and insert your diagrams in this article from our Help Center.

Hope this helps--sorry for any inconvenience this may cause! 

Nirmala S
February 8, 2023

I included Lucidchart as an add-in to word 2016. It still does not copy paste. As mentioned in the conversation - earlier I was able to copy paste since last week I am noticing that I am not able to. 

Phillip W
Lucid support team
February 8, 2023

Hey Nirmala

Thank you for keeping this thread going 🥳! Unfortunately Copy/Paste from Lucid to outside products has never been formally supported. It may have worked at times however it is not something we have ever natively featured. 

As mentioned above we do recommend utilizing the Microsoft Integration. To use this integration you will select "Insert Diagram" button opens Lucidchart panel. This will insert your diagram as an image just as using Copy/Paste would. Alternatively you can take a screenshot of your page or export as a PDF/PNG and insert the image that way. 

Hope this helps--please let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers 🍻

justin@theengineeringshop.com
February 8, 2023

This is kind of a big problem for me and I expect that it's going to be a problem for most of your users.  The diagrams made in Lucidchart end up in reports and presentations; there really aren't many more purposes for them than that.  I understand that the plugin permits inserting charts but it has to be done by whole charts.  This means that for every little diagram we make we have to save a new file and this really doesn't cut it.  When your program permitted copy and paste it was a great alternative to Visio.  Now not so much.  I understand that even though this used to work it wasn't something that you natively featured.  Would you please natively support copy/paste to outside products?  If you can't I'm probably going to have to leave.

Jordi C
February 9, 2023

Thank you Philipp for your response. It is probably the official answer but it is not a good answer. What you propose is far from being a practical solution among other things for the reasons that Justin explains above. When we use Lucid to create diagrams we create and organize them within Lucid and we copy and paste them into our documents. Your plugin does not even allow us to select tabs and we have to create separate files for each diagram. I use Lucid professionally and I am currently on a project that will likely have dozens of tabs and what you propose is not an option. I really like the tool but without being able to copy & paste into Word it no longer makes sense for me and I will have to look for other options. What I don't understand is that this WORKED and all of a sudden it has STOPPED WORKING. You can't just leave it as it was a few days ago?

We're still trying to undestand WHY it has stopped working. It would be nice to know it.

ting l
February 9, 2023

I have the same issue. It stopped working suddenly 2 days ago. I have to use screen capture to copy & paste. The quality is not very good with that. Please do help fix this issue. I do prefer Lucid than Visio. But I will have to go back to Visio if this could not be solved.