linking an excel object to a word doc

[Oscarwing]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel linking an excel object to a word doc I get a very small narrow frame insert. Not the whole preset print area as I have usually obtained before this incident.

How to solve this please?

 

[Rob Schneider]

Exactly what did you to this linking? Please give each step.


--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Oscarwing]

Rob,

As I have been using windows Word 2003 I would request to place an object of an excel file worksheet into a word document as an insert.

I request from the insert menu, select object then file from the particular excel file and as well hit link to the .doc document and let the processor do it's stuff.

However I posted a later note saying that I then made a copy of the preset printed area in the excel file swapped back to word doc, edit menu and then inserted by paste special and the full object was duly presented in good order.

 

[Rob Schneider]

First off, you are working with Word 2003 which only runs on Windows.
This newsgroup is about Word on the "mac" which uses Apple's OS X
operating system. It's different.

The good news is that it appears you have sorted the problem.


--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Peter Jamieson]

You may or may not need to know the following, depending largely on what
you hope will happen to your link when you re-open your Word document.

As a general rule, when you link to an Excel workbook using the
Insert->Object, from file, link approach, Word will try to insert the
whole of the first worksheet in the workbook. It doesn't insert the
"Print Area".

If you use the approach of "select in Excel, copy, Paste Special->Paste
Link in Word, Word will insert that selection. It only inserts the
"Print Area" "by accident", i.e. if that happens to be the same as the
area that you selected.

This is AFAIK for all recent versions of Word.

When you set the print area, Excel creates a "range name" called
Print_Area (In the English language versions, anyway) that references
the area you selected.

If you use Alt-F9 or a suitable Mac equivalent to look at the { LINK }
field code that Word inserts,
a. when you insert the "object", the LINK field will probably just
show the full pathname of the Excel Workbook
b. when you use paste special->paste link, the LINK field specifies
the workbook pathname, the worksheet name, and a range. The range can
either be specified using "RnCn" format, e.g. R12C5:R16C5, or using a
range name. If the area you selected happens to correspond to an area
that has a range name, Word will probably use the range name. So if your
habit is to do

Select block of cells
Set Print Area
Copy
Paste Special

the Link field will probably specify the Print_Area range name. However,
if there is another range name that references the same area, the Link
field may specify that instead.

If the selected area does not correspond to a range name, the LINK field
will reference it using RnCn notation.

The thing is that if you ever update that LINK field (e.g. when you
reopen your Word document you may be prompted to do so, depending on
various settings), Word will look at the area currently specified by the
range name. In other words, if you have altered the Print_Area (or your
own range name) in the Excel worksheet, Word will update the document to
reflect that.

That may or may not be what you want for any given document.

FWIW I believe that a lot of people think that Word always references
the Print_Area by default when linking. But it is really "accidental"

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

 

[Oscarwing]

Rob,

I had exact and similar problems with Word 2003 & Word for Mac inserting sections of a worksheet.

I am currently operating MacBookPro Leopard and I was equating exact or similar problems as was my direct experience to account said stories.

Which is the correct way to request an insert linked object from an Excel file in Word for Mac.

Thanking you Rob.

Now for;

Peter,

It was a thorough explanation of how the link insert link command operates inside Word 2003 and/or Word for Mac.

Greatly appreciated.

 

[Rob Schneider]

I keep it simple and avoid links. I don't do it. Perhaps that is
because I remember how all this started with great fanfare with OLE
(Object Linking and Embedding with one of the Service Packs to Windows
in the early 1990's.

I select in Excel what I want to put into a Word Document. I copy to
clipboard, then paste into Word as a picture ... so that it's Sticks. I
put in the caption under that a file reference to where that data comes
from. For many writing projects I have an associated Excel file that
holds this sort of source data, and a PowerPoint (or increasingly
OminiGraffle) file which has figures, drawings, etc. All these are not
"linked" just to avoid technology issues. Getting on with producing the
document is more important to me.


--rms

www.rmschneider.com