How to Embed Excel Data in a Word Document
Here’s how to embed an Excel worksheet using the simple paste option: Here’s how to embed using the Paste Special option:
How to Link Excel Data to a Word Document
The steps to link a worksheet to a Word document are similar to the steps to embed the data. Keep these pointers in mind after you’ve linked the data:
If you move the linked Excel file (for example, to another folder), the link will break. To relink it, follow the steps above again. To edit the data, double-click the table to open the linked worksheet in Excel. If you edit the worksheet in Excel, the changes appear in the Word document when you save the Excel worksheet.
Should You Link or Embed?
When you link an Excel worksheet to a Word document, every time the worksheet is updated, the changes are reflected in the document. All editing takes place in the worksheet and not in the document. Use this option if you plan to make changes to the worksheet, especially if these changes involve complex calculations. An embedded worksheet is a flat file. Once it’s part of a Word document, it behaves like a piece of that document and can be edited in Word. There is no connection between the original worksheet and the Word document it’s now a part of. Use this option if you plan to make minimal changes to the table data or if the data involves simple calculations.
Embedding Options
When you embed an Excel worksheet into a Word document, you can either copy and paste from Excel to Word or embed using the Paste Special feature. The copy-and-paste method is faster but some formatting may change and some table functionality may be lost. The Paste Special feature provides more options for how the data will appear.
