Ole links in word

Import Linked or Unlinked Excel Worksheet Data into Word Files

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated February 1, 2021

Applies to: Microsoft^® Excel^®  and Word^® 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 or 365 (Windows)

You can easily copy or import Excel worksheet data into Word documents. When you import from an Excel file, you can choose to import linked or unlinked data. If it’s linked, you will be able to update, change and remove the links.

The following are three easy ways to import Excel data into Word by copying and pasting:

1. Copy the data in the Excel file, switch to the Word document and then paste the data where you want it to appear as a static copy.
2. Import the Excel data into the Word document as a linked OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) object so that when the Excel file changes, the Word document will update as well.
3. Create links to the Excel data in a Word table so that when the Excel file changes, the table will update.

If you choose the second or third method, you will need to ensure that the Excel file remains in the same location with the same name or manage the link(s) using Edit Links.

Recommended article: How to Create a Table of Contents in Word

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Inserting unlinked Excel data

You can easily copy data from Excel and paste it into a Word document. Use this method if you do not need to update the Word file when the Excel data changes.

To insert unlinked Excel data into Word:

1. Open the Excel file.
2. Select the data you want to copy into the Word file.
3. Press Ctrl + C or right-click and select Copy from the drop-down menu.
4. Open the Word file.
5. Position the insertion point where you want the Excel data to appear.
6. Press Ctrl + V or right-click and choose Paste Values from the drop-down menu.
   

With this method, the Excel data will be copied into Word as a table and the Word file will not update when the Excel file changes. Because the data is pasted into a table, you can use Word’s table tools to format it and the file will be smaller because the data is not linked.

Inserting Excel data as a linked OLE object

You can insert an OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) object when you want to insert a linked copy of Excel data. However, one of the problems with this method is that the OLE object is like a picture of the cells and you would need to format the data in Excel to appear the way you want in the Word file.

To insert Excel data into Word as a linked OLE object:

1. Open the Excel source workbook.
2. Select the data you want to place in the Word file.
3. Press Ctrl + C or right-click and choose Copy from the drop-down menu.
4. Open the Word destination document.
5. Position the insertion point where you want the linked Excel data to appear.
6. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon and select the arrow below Paste. A drop-down menu appears.
7. Select Paste Special. A dialog box will appear.
8. Click Paste Link.
9. Under As, select Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object.
10. Click OK.

Note the Paste link option on the left of the Paste Special dialog box:

You can double-click an OLE object to jump to the source Excel file.

Inserting linked Excel data into a Word table

You can insert Excel data as a table in Word where each cell is linked to the Excel data source. This is a great method because you can maintain links but format the data the way you want in Word.

To insert linked Excel data into a Word table:

1. Open the Excel source workbook.
2. Select the data you want to place in the Word file.
3. Press Ctrl + C or right-click and choose Copy from the drop-down menu.
4. Open the Word destination document.
5. Position the insertion point where you want the linked Excel data to appear.
6. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon and select the arrow below Paste. A drop-down menu appears.
7. Select Paste Special. A dialog box will appear.
8. Click Paste Link.
9. Under As, select HTML Format.
10. Click OK.

HTML format is selected by default in the Paste Special dialog box:

Click in the table in the Word document. As long as Field Shading When Selected is set in Word Options, each cell will appear with gray shading indicating that it is a field linked to Excel. You can format the table in Word.

Updating or managing links

One of the benefits of linking data is that information in a destination document updates when you change information in the source document. This typically occurs automatically if both documents are open. However, if you open a Word document with links and the Excel file is not open, Word should prompt you to update the links. You may also need to update links yourself or re-establish a link if the original Excel file has been moved or renamed.

To update or manage links:

1. Right-click a linked object or HTML table. A drop-down menu appears.
2. Choose Linked Worksheet Object and then Edit Links. A dialog box appears.
3. Under Update method for selected link, Automatic update is selected by default. You can choose Manual update if you do not want the data to update automatically. You would then need to click the link and click Update Now to update.
4. Make any other changes (such as breaking a link of changing the source for a link).
5. Click OK.

The Links dialog box below displays one link:

It’s not difficult to import Excel data into Word. Typically, the biggest issue occurs when other users move or rename the source Excel file but this can be managed using Edit Links and changing the source.

This article was first published on March 13, 2016 and has been updated for clarity and content.

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Задание: Задание выполнить в режиме Разметка страницы команды Вид главного меню Word.

I. Оформить таблицу 1

Расходы фирмы «Asus» за 1-ый квартал 2008 г. (тыс. руб.)

II. Продемонстрировать технологию OLE

Действия:

Для выполнения задания следует скопировать первую таблицу приложение Ms Excel. Для этого нужно выделить первую таблицу, затем нажать кнопку Копировать.

В результате копия таблиц окажется в буфере обмена. Свернуть текущее окно Word. Нажать кнопку Пуск. Выбрать Создать Документ Microsoft Office, затем в появившемся окне щелкнуть по ярлыку Еxcel. Откроется новый рабочий лист электронной таблицы Excel. Установите курсор в ячейку с адресом А1. Щелкнуть по кнопке Вставить,

Таблица будет скопирована на рабочий лист Excel.

Чтобы поместить в Word данные, связанные с рабочим листом Ехсel необходимо выполнить следующие действия:

1. Открыть рабочую книгу Excel и рабочий лист, содержащий нужные данные;
2. Выделить таблицу рабочего листа Excel. Выбрать команду Правка,
   Копировать;
3. Свернуть текущее окно рабочего листа Excel и распахнуть окно
   документа Word;
4. Установить курсор в нижней части листа (после первой таблицы);
5. Выбрать команду Правка, Специальная вставка. При этом будет открыто окно Специальная вставка ;
6. Выбрать переключатель «Связать»;

   В диалоговом окне Специальная вставка в списке «Как» (As) выбрать строку «Обьект: лист Microsoft Excel»;

   

7. Нажать кнопку ОК, Данные из рабочей книги Ms Ехсеl будут помещены в документ Word как рисунок.

Изменить эти данные непосредственно в Word нельзя. Для того чтобы внести изменения в исходные данные и убедиться, что документ Word должным образом реагирует на внесенные изменения, нужно выполнить следующее:

1. Открыть исходную рабочую книгу Excel и внести изменения в скопированной ранее таблице по образцу;
   

   Расходы фирмы «Asus» за 2-ый квартал 2008 г. (тыс. руб.)
   Код	Категория	Апрель	Май	Июнь
   2820	Фонд заработной платы	34900	34900	34900
   2650	Налоги	4188	4188	4188
   3092	Выплаты по контрактам	6500	6500	6500
   2830	Премии	834	450	1200
   2940	Доступ в ИНТЕРНЕТ	125	125	125
   2941	Командировки	1083	975	1400
   2940	Телефон	321	321	321
   	Всего по месяцам

2. Для вычисления в Excel общей суммы расходов за Апрель следует установить курсор в ячейку C9 и нажать на значок ∑ Автосуммы, затем нажать клавишу «Enter».

   

   По аналогии, вычислить общую сумму расходов за Май и Июнь месяцы;
3. Закончив внесение изменений, нажать клавишу «Enter», для того чтобы выполнить обновление данных. При этом, соответствующие данные в документе Word также будут обновлены;

   

   Переключится в Ms Word, для того чтобы увидеть изменения.

   Расходы фирмы «Asus» за 2-ый квартал 2008 г. (тыс. руб.)
   Код	Категория	Апрель	Май	Июнь
   2820	Фонд заработной платы	34900	34900	34900
   2650	Налоги	4188	4188	4188
   3092	Выплаты по контрактам	6500	6500	6500
   2830	Премии	834	450	1200
   2940	Доступ в ИНТЕРНЕТ	125	125	125
   2941	Командировки	1083	975	1400
   2940	Телефон	321	321	321
   	Всего по месяцам	47951	47459	48634

Word OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) object is used to make contents, created in one program, available in Word document. For example, users can insert an Excel worksheet in a Word document.

Both Linked object and Embedded object can be used between Word and other programs. The data of Embedded objects is saved in Word and should be updated manually, while data of Linked object remains as separate file and will be updated when source data is changed.

Spire.Doc for .NET , a professional component to manipulate Word documents with .NET, enables users to insert OLE objects in Word by using C#/VB.NET. This guide will show you how to insert one kind of OLE objects, Linked objects (an Excel Worksheet) in Word.

Users can invoke paragraph.AppendOleObject(string pathToFile, olePicture, OleObjectType) method to insert OLE objects in Word. The parameters, olePicture and OleObjectType are properties of DocOleObject class which is provided by Spire.Doc for .NET.

The following steps present details to insert OLE Objects in Word. The following demonstrate a document before insert the OLE Object into Word, and at the bottom, you can find the result screenshot after inserting. Before starting with the steps, download and install Spire.Doc for .NET on system.

Code Detail:

Step 1: Define a GetExcelImage(string ExcelFile) method to get olePicture. Actually, the olePicture is image of data information in original Excel worksheet. The image is generated from Excel through Spire.XLS for .NET that will be shown in documents after inserting OLE object in Word. Double click this picture and you can get the original worksheet.

 
private static Image GetExcelImage(String ExcelFile)
 {
  //Load Excel File
  Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
  workbook.LoadFromFile(ExcelFile);
  Worksheet sheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

  //Set Image Range
  int lastRow = sheet.LastRow;
  int lastColumn = sheet.LastColumn;
  return workbook.Worksheets[0].SaveToImage(1, 1, lastRow, lastColumn);
}

[VB.NET]

   
Private Shared Function GetExcelImage(ByVal ExcelFile As String) As Image
  'Load Excel File
  Dim workbook As New Workbook()
  workbook.LoadFromFile(ExcelFile)
  Dim sheet As Worksheet = workbook.Worksheets(0)

  'Set Image Range
  Dim lastRow As Integer = sheet.LastRow
  Dim lastColumn As Integer = sheet.LastColumn
  Return workbook.Worksheets(0).SaveToImage(1, 1, lastRow, lastColumn)
End Function
 

Step 2: Insert OLE object. After adding paragraph in Word document, declare a new DocPicture. Then, use GetExcelImage(string ExcelFile) method which is defined in step 1 to get image source and then use picture.LoadImage(Image) method to load this image. Finally, insert OLE objects.

       
para = mysec.AddParagraph();
DocPicture picture = new DocPicture(mydoc);
Image image = GetExcelImage(@"E:workDocumentsExcelFilesCustomers.xlsx");//Get Image Source
picture.LoadImage(image);//Load Image
DocOleObject obj = para.AppendOleObject(@"E:workDocumentsExcelFilesCustomers.xlsx", picture, Spire.Doc.Documents.OleObjectType.ExcelWorksheet);

[VB.NET]

  
'Insert OLE Object
para = mysec.AddParagraph()
Dim picture As New DocPicture(mydoc)
Dim image As Image = GetExcelImage("E:workDocumentsExcelFilesCustomers.xlsx") 'Get Image Source
picture.LoadImage(image) 'Load Image
Dim obj As DocOleObject = para.AppendOleObject("E:workDocumentsExcelFilesCustomers.xlsx", picture, Spire.Doc.Documents.OleObjectType.ExcelWorksheet)

After this coding, you can run this application and a result will show up as below:

Spire.Doc is a Microsoft Word component, which enables users to perform a wide range of Word document processing tasks directly, such as generate, read, write and modify Word document in WPF, .NET and Silverlight.

We have a strange issue with OLE links with Excel and Word.

If we open the Excel document and then open a Word document linked to the Excel workbook, everything works. When finished, we must close Word and then close the Excel document. We receive no OLE errors and everything works IN THAT ORDER.

The problem comes if you open a Word document with OLE links without opening Excel. A phantom Excel.exe process is opened to access the OLE Links in the background. The OLE links work, but when you close Word, the Excel.exe process remains open. Then, you open a real instance of Excel and try to close as normal, Excel freezes because the original Excel.exe process is stuck open and accessing the OLE links.

We receive the message that says «Microsoft Excel is waiting for another application to complete an OLE action.» after about 2-3 minutes of Excel not responding. The only way to close Excel is through task manager. If we manually close the phantom Excel.exe process running in the background before opening the Excel program, everything works.

This is a Microsoft Office 2010 issue.