Illustrator and excel

Question

I work with info-graphics and normally I analyse the data in excel and then I copy/paste the graphs into Illustrator.
A couple of months ago this process turn all these .ai files into conflicted ones (the doc opens but it's empty).
Any help is appreciated.
Regards

Answer 1

After copy/paste from Word to Illustrator CS5, I have to do
Object-Clipping mask-Release several times, and then the chart becomes an
editable graphic. I still think that plotting the data in Illustrator is
the best way to go, as long as the requestor has that data available in
his or her Excel file and will provide the Excel file instead of the chart
embedded in Word. This will only work if Adobe expands the graphing
capabilities in Illustrator. Many of the charts I receive from researchers
cannot be plotted using Illustrator's existing charting function.
Karen Nelson
Visual Information Specialist
Forest Products Laboratory
608.231.9232
clcorrea <[email protected]>
02/16/2011 05:41 PM
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Subject
Illustrator CS5 - Coping from Excel and pasting into
Illustrator
Ok, this thread is the closest thing i have found to a solution, so I hope
that I just need a minor tweak here. We are using Illustrator CS4 and
Excel 2008 to try and get vector graphics from excel to Illustrator. Using
these two applications, I used to click the chart in excel, save as PDF,
and then open that PDF  in Illustrator complete with vector graphics. We
recently upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard. Now what we get when we
save as PDF from Excel 2008 chart and bring into Illustrator CS4 is what
appears to be a group of clipping masks rather than the vector pieces of
the pie. I am sure that Snow Leopard is partly to blame here, but any
thought on this latest wrinkle? Thanks in advance
http://forums.adobe.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/58319/piechart.jpg