Oftentimes, Microsoft Office users desire to integrate Excel and Word so that Excel data links into a Word document, such as account balance data in a financial report that needs to be referenced in a Word document. Sure, you could type the data into the Word document or you could copy-and-paste it, but these methods require manual updating in Word whenever the data changes in Excel. Perhaps the best way of handling this situation is to link the data from Excel into Word as described below.
To begin, consider the data shown below in Figure 1. The numeric data in the Word document on the left has been linked from the Excel document on the right. One account balance – “Other Depreciable Property” – remains unlinked from Excel into Word.
Figure 1 - Linking Excel Data into Word
To link the remaining account balance, begin by selecting cell C22 in Excel and executing a Copy command. Then click in the appropriate location in the Word document and click the arrow below the Paste icon on the Home tab of the Ribbon and choose Paste Special. In the resulting Paste Special dialog box shown in Figure 2, choose Paste Link and Unformatted Text.
Figure 2 - Selecting Paste Special, Paste Link, Unformatted Text
Lastly, select and update the "Total" formula in the Word document to complete the process, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 - Completed Section of Word Document with Linked Excel Data
From this point forward, as the linked data in Excel changes, simply update the appropriate fields in Word by clicking on the field and pressing F9; alternatively, select the entire document by pressing CTRL + A and then press F9 to update all fields.
For a video demonstration of this tip, please visit www.tinyurl.com/k2tips88.