Thread: Embedding/linking an Excel spreadsheet

I need Excel datapoints to be littered throughout a Word document (for nicer formatting, so I don't have to use 20 little thin columns to space things around on the page). So, I don't want to embed en Excel spreadsheet, because then I'd only have the one spreadsheet and I don't know how I'd reference given data points throughout the rest of the Word document.

So I linked an Excel document to a Word document, copy/pasting cells back and forth. It was great, I could change something in the Excel sheet and the Word document would change. I then copied the two files onto the server.

Now, when I open the Word document, I get a message telling me that I need to update the document and asking me if I want the latest information from the worksheet. Of course I do, why wouldn't I? But I don't see a way to set this as a default.

Then, when I double click on the Excel information in the Word document, it opens the Excel sheet for editing, but changes don't seem to be reflected in the Word document. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to tell Word to update whenever I've updated the information?

To get it done, I did it all in Excel and it looks great, but it would have looked even better if I'd been able to link the two as I feel I should be able to link them.

So I linked an Excel document to a Word document, copy/pasting cells back and forth.

Did you just copy and paste, or did you copy and "paste as link"? there is a difference. Maybe you have pasted some parts as links, which is why Word asks about updating. Maybe hou have pasted other parts unlinked, which is why they won't get updated.

The Word help is actually quite good in explaining the concept and the differences.

also, check Edit - Links to see a list of all the links in your Word doc. Here you can also control which individual links should be updated automatically or manually, and you can also break a link, to make the information static.

hth