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Excel Tables and Charts in Powerpoint and Word

Microsoft Excel is the market leading spreadsheet package. This makes it the default software for numerical analysis and reporting. It is sold as part of the wider Office suite that includes word processing (Word) and presentation software (Powerpoint). The good news is that all the programs can talk to one another, allowing you to insert tables in reports and presentations.

 

Firstly, why would you want to add an existing Excel table to a Word document? After all, you can create your own tables in Word. In fact you can even create your own Excel spreadsheets within Word. To get the data from your Excel spreadsheet to your Word document is simply a matter of copying and pasting.

 

The problem is that your copied data will not get updated unless you copy over it. If you are preparing a big report over a number of weeks, it may well be that your source data has changed by the time you complete the project. It may even be that you spot an error in your Excel spreadsheet, correct it, and find your final figures change.

 

Instead of having to change everything twice, once in Excel and once in Word, you can embed the original Excel sheet in Word. This means that changing the Excel file changes the Word document. It's important to understand exactly how this works. The Word document contains a reference to your spreadsheet that makes a note of exactly where the file is saved on your system. It can then access it to update data.

 

The #1 problem people encounter when embedding Excel charts or tables is that these links only work as long as both files remain in the same place. As soon as you send your final presentation e.g. by e-mail, and separate it from the original data, you will run into problems. If Powerpoint or Word cannot find a linked Excel file, it will prompt the user to locate it and restore the link.

 

Obviously when sending files around, this can become impractical because it requires your report to be accompanied by your spreadsheet at all times. Perhaps in the future, everything will be stored in "the cloud" and this problem will go away. However, at the moment, it is a very large problem

 

There are only really three solutions. The first is very simple. Don't send people the report as a Word document, send it to them as a pdf. If you're giving people a presentation, print it out for them. If no-one else needs to edit your work, this avoids the problem entirely.

 

The second option is to keep the links in place until you send the file to someone else. Now the advantage of this is that you can maintain an original copy with links in place such that, if they wish to make edits, you can then copy and paste their edited text/slides back into a master document. This does mean you still have to be in a position to control the document at your end.

 

The last option is to hire an external Excel consultant to build a bespoke solution to your specific problem e.g. instead of building permanent links in your Powerpoint presentation, you can simply click a button when you wish to update the file. This would give the user the control to ensure their data is up-to-date whenever they wish to draw a conclusion or send the presentation to someone else

About the Author

Ed Bolton is the founder of Excel4Business, and an Excel consultant.

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