Part IV: Using Advanced Excel Features
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FIGURE 29.3Word paste options when an Excel chart is on the Clipboard.
Pasting a link
If the Excel data that you’re copying will change, you may want to paste a link. Use the Paste Link
option in the Paste Special dialog box.When would you want to use this technique? If you generate proposals using Word, for example,
you may need to refer to pricing information that you store in an Excel worksheet. If you set up a
link between your Word document and the Excel worksheet, you can be sure that your proposals
always quote the latest prices.The link is a one-way link. You cannot make changes to the linked Excel worksheet in Word.If you paste the data by using the Paste Link option in the Paste Special dialog box, you can make
changes to the source document, and those changes appear in the destination application. You can
test these changes by displaying both applications onscreen, making changes to the source docu-
ment, and watching for them to appear in the destination document.Caution
You can break links rather easily. For example, if you move the source document to another directory or save
it under a different name, the destination document’s application can’t update the link. In such a case, you
need to re-establish the link manually (described later in this section). n
Figure 29.4 shows the Word Paste Special dialog box when an Excel range has been copied and
the Paste Link option is specified. Note that, with one exception, these options are the same ones
available when you select the Paste option. The only format that isn’t available for pasting a link is
Picture (Enhanced Metafile).