Automatically Update Links

[Karen]

I have a Word document that has links to an Excel
document. I am using these as templates. How do I get
the links in Word to automatically change source file
when I rename the Excel file after it has been changed?
The Excel file is my source file, and I am using it as my
template so that after I put data into it, I save it as
that individual's name/data. I need to do the same thing
in Word after the data in Excel has been put in, but when
I do, then save as the individual's name/data in Word, it
gives me an error message that the links are invalid.
Then I have to manually go in and change all of the
links. Can anyone tell me how to do this so that it will
change automatically? Any help at all would be greatly
appreciated.

 

[Cindy Meister -WordMVP-]

Hi Karen,

I have a Word document that has links to an Excel
document. I am using these as templates. How do I get
the links in Word to automatically change source file
when I rename the Excel file after it has been changed?

Office doesn't provide any functionality for this, I'm
afraid. You really have no choice than to change the link
information in Word "manually".

There are a couple of things you can do to make it less
time-consuming, however.

One possibility is to place the Excel file path into a
custom document property (File/Properties). Then you need
to change it in only one place. Substitute a DocProperty
field into the LINK fields for the file path. Note that you
could also use a macro for updating the doc property, if
you wish, so that it appears to be automatic.

Another approach is to use Find/Replace with the field
codes displayed to substitute one path for another.

In both cases, the Excel stuff may NOT have any textflow
formatting applied. If you need this, put the Excel object
into a FRAME, so that Word still has access to the field
links.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Jan 24 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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