Linking Excel Objects to a Word document

Try this:  starting in Excel, highlight the cells or table you want to link into Word.  Alt tab over to Word and select where ever you want to link the Excel object and then choose Paste Special and then be sure to select Paste Link, then select Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object.

That should allow the content in Word to be updated as the content in Excel changes.

 

I'm trying to link information from an Excel sheet into some admission forms and the fields are not updating themselves automatically.  I've gone into the Advanced Options and made sure the 'Update automatic links at open' is checked.  When I change the info in Excel, the Word document doesn't update to reflect the new information, even when I save the Excel file.

When I hover over 'Update automatic links at open' I get a little message that says "This option is not available for the view your current document is in."  I've tried changing the document view but that doesn't do anything either.  Is there something I'm missing?  What do I need to do to make this work?

When I've pasted the link into Word and changed my content in Excel nothing changes.  When I right-click the object from Excel there is an option to update the field which then changes the field to reflect the change I made in Excel.  This is nice; however, I'm trying to make it an automated process because the forms I'm filling out ask for the same info over and over again.  If I could enter this info one time it would really help me out.

Are you on Office 2010 ?  2007 ?

It's working fine for me (I'm on 2010) ... As a test, I setup a 5 or 10 rows by 5 columns table in Excel.  In each cell I put the formula:  =Rand( ) which results in a randomly generated number.

Then I copied this table of 25 or 50 cells to Word using Paste Special as Link and selected Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object.  This allows for a dynamic linkage between Word and Excel.  So as the data changes in Excel it changes in Word.  To test this toggle back to Excel and hit F9.  All the values in the table change.  They should also change in Word.

Maybe try doing this with a brand new Word file and a brand new Excel file rather than using your currently acting 0mysterious files.  See if you can get this working in those new files.  And then see if you can replicate in your other files.

Good luck!

SS

Thank you for this information; however, I have a problem that goes one step further.  All of my information in Excel is alphabetical in column A.  I've copied and chosen Paste Special to link the individual Excel cell information into my Word document as a Microsoft object.  A portion of the Word document is in table form and that's where the individual cell information is being linked to.  My problem is that when I insert a new row of information in Excel, then the previous row of information moves down and the linked information in the Word document doesn't flow with the new cell number.  The Excel information that used to be in D18 is now in D19, but my Word document is referencing the newly inserted information in D18.  Let's say I want to add information for the Drake Company right above Drummond Company.  The Drummond Company information is OK before Drake came into play; but when I add Drake into Excel, then my Word document relating to Drummond is picking up Drake instead because it seems to be locked only on the previous cell (D18), instead of adjusting to the new cell (D19).  What is the fix for this situation?  Is there a way to keep the same information in Word once the linked cell has been adjusted from one row to another row?

It would appear that in your case, it is not appropriate to link the data.

If you link to individual cells, the link references in Word are not affected by anything you do in Excel; they remain the same and will point to whatever now happens to be at those addresses. You could, of course, change the cell references in Word as well.

In situations when a referenced range may expand/contract and you want the entire range to be reflected in Word, it is probably better to name the range in Excel; that way the link in Word can reference the named range and the linked output will expand/contract with it.