Linked Excel sheet re-opened for every linked chart. ANNOYING!

**twointum** · 09-20-2012, 02:40 PM

I must be doing something wrong. I have an Excel sheet with about 30 charts created. I pasted as link in Word. I have the settings checked to update links automatically.

The problem is that when the Word file is opened, it says "This document contains links that may refer to other files. Do you want to update this document with the data from the linked files?"

When I press Yes, it opens the Excel file. However, it wants to reopen the file for each chart I have linked. I get this dialogue.

2012-09-20_1126.png

All of the charts are on the same Excel sheet. Why is it trying to open an instance for each chart? What can I do? Is this a Word issue or did I link it improperly from Excel? I'm very frustrated, please help if you can.

Excel & Word 2010

**twointum** · 10-05-2012, 01:24 PM

Anybody know of a place I can search to find an answer to this?

**6StringJazzer** · 10-05-2012, 03:35 PM

I am not sure of the answer to your problem but I have a Word file with many charts linked to the same Excel file (all 2010) and have not had the problem you describe. When I open the Word file it does ask me if I want to update the linked data, but if I click Yes it does not open the Excel file, and I have never seen the dialog you snapped.

I would suggest posting a step-by-step description of how you inserted the charts.

**twointum** · 10-16-2012, 05:15 PM

1. Create charts in Excel.
2. Copy from Excel and Paste to Word. I am using the "Keep Source Formatting and Link Data (F)" option.
3. I changed the file properties in Word so it updates from the Excel file when the Word document is opened. To do this, I went to File > Edit Links to Files > Selected all charts I pasted > change from Manual update to Automatic Update under the Update method for selected link area.
4. Save the file.
5. Close > Re-Open > Select "Yes" on the "this document contains links that may refer to other files." dialog.

Immidiately after that, it says the Excel file is already open, when it is not. I even checked the Task Manager.

I have attached the source file and destination file. I hope you guys can figure out what I'm doing wrong. This is driving me crazy. Book1.xlsx Doc1.docx

6StringJazzer, what paste method did you use?

**6StringJazzer** · 10-17-2012, 03:15 PM

I don't recognize the option in your step #2. Attached is a screenshot of how I do this paste. Also using Office 2010.

paste chart into Word.jpg

**6StringJazzer** · 10-17-2012, 04:00 PM

I downloaded your files and when I opened the Word file and said "Yes" to the update prompt, it did not open the Excel file. So I don't think the issue is related to your paste method. However, I have seen a question similar to yours posted around the 'net but I haven't seen a simple solution. Here is one example.

**twointum** · 10-17-2012, 05:35 PM

Here is the paste method:

http://content.screencast.com/users/...10-17_1434.png

Ugh, it seems it's a 2010 issue. I guess I just pray this is fixed in the next Excel version.