As much as we want all of your work to take place in the Mural app, we recognize there’s a time and place for spreadsheets and documents. Using Mural’s copy + paste functionality, you can easily import text from outside applications such as Word, Excel, and Google files. Or, you can copy text from a mural (sticky notes, for example) and paste it into an outside application.
Note: While we pride ourselves on the copy + paste functionality to work with many outside applications, behavior with some apps may vary from what’s documented in this article. If you ever need assistance, chat with Mural Support.
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Paste into a mural from an outside application
You can easily bring copied text from outside applications (Microsoft Suite or Google Suite, for example) directly into your mural. By default, Mural creates sticky notes for pasted text. If any lines of text are extra long or have line breaks, Mural will place the text in paragraph boxes instead of sticky notes. But, as always, you can change how multiple lines of text pastes using Mural’s paste-as feature.
Note: If you copy multiple rows and columns from a spreadsheet, the text objects will maintain the same order you have on your spreadsheet. If you copy multiple bullet points or a numbered list from a document, the text from each line will show up as its own sticky note on the mural.
To copy from an outside application and paste into your mural:
Select the cells or text you want to copy from your spreadsheet or document.
Right-click and select Copy. Or, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C (Command + C on Mac).
Open your mural.
Right-click the canvas and select Paste. Or, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + V (Command + V on Mac).
Voilà! Each cell or line of text will magically appear as its own sticky note on your canvas. Or, if any line of text is longer (over 120 characters), it will land in a paragraph box. You can always change how multiple lines of text are pasted onto your canvas using the paste-as feature.
Tip: When you paste copied text into your mural, formatting is stripped from the text. If you want to maintain the formatting of a bulleted or numbered list, consider pasting into a paragraph box instead of directly onto the canvas.
Paste into an outside application from a mural
When you select multiple objects on your canvas and right-click the selection, you’ll see an option in the context menu to Copy text. This action works for sticky notes, paragraphs, titles, or any objects that hold text. From there, you can paste the text into your outside application.
Note: All text formatting gets removed during the transition. Each object’s text will paste as its own separate line item in a document or row in a spreadsheet.
To copy from a mural and paste into an outside application:
Select the objects with the text you want to copy from your mural.
(To select multiple objects, hold Ctrl or Command and click each object you want. Or, hold Shift and click + drag to select.)
Right-click and select Copy text. Or, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C (Command + C on Mac).
Note: If you don’t see the Copy text option listed in the context menu after right-clicking the canvas, you likely have accidentally selected an object that can’t hold text (such as a connector). For an easy way to ensure you only select the correct types of objects, you can use our Find panel and narrow down the object types to sticky notes and text.
Open the file in your outside application.
Right-click and select Paste. Or, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + V (Command + V on Mac).
The text you copied from your mural lands as its own line of text in your outside application’s file.
Tip: Even if you copy multiple rows and columns of sticky note text, the text will only paste as separate rows in a single column of your spreadsheet. So, it’s best to copy and paste one column of sticky note text at a time.