MAIL MERGES

OBJECT LINKING AND EMBEDDING

Choose Between Linking and Embedding Objects

The Annoyance:

I need to put part of a spreadsheet into a Word document so that it all prints together. I've gotten as far as the Paste Special dialog boxbut should I use the "Paste" option or the "Paste link" option? What is the "link" bit, and what's it for?

The Fix:

As you're seeing, the Office applications provide two main ways of including information created in one application (here, the cells from the spreadsheet) in a document created in another application (here, your Word document). In either case, you want to use the Edit Paste Special command and select the object with the applications namefor example, Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet Objectin the As list.

Embedding , or using the "Paste" command here, places the source information in the destination document in a format that you can edit (provided that your computer has the relevant application). For example, say you put those cells in your document and send it to your boss on another continent . As long as your boss has Excel on his computer, he can double-click the cells in the Word document to make Word load the relevant parts of Excel in the background so that he can edit the cells (see Figure 9-1). There's no link between the document and the spreadsheet from which the cells came. If your boss doesn't have Excel, he'll see the cells, but he won't be able to edit them.

Linking (using the "Paste link" command here) places the Excel cells in the document but also creates a link back to the source spreadsheet. That means that you can update the link to show the latest information in the spreadsheetprovided that it is available on the same path as it was on the computer that created it, if you're opening the document on a different machine. When you double-click the cells in the Word document, Word activates Excel (again, assuming it is available on the computer) and takes you to those cells in the spreadsheet so that you can work on them directly. Linking breaks down if the application or the file isn't where the object in the Word document expects it to be.

Figure 9-1. Embedding lets you put an editable section of a file created in another applicationfor example, some cells from an Excel spreadsheetin a Word document.

If you're the only one who will be using your document, and you want to be able to print it out showing the latest information, link the cells rather than embedding them. If you want to be able to send the document to someone who doesn't have access to the spreadsheet, embed the cells.

---

Tip: Embedding creates a larger file size than linking, because Word needs to store more data in the Word document. However, file size typically becomes an issue only when you embed large graphical itemsfor example, if you embed a dozen complex PowerPoint slides in a Word documentand then need to squeeze the document onto a floppy disk or attach it to an email message.

---

Update, Edit, and Break Links

The Annoyance:

Right now, linking doesn't seem like such a good idea. Word says it can't even find the linked file with which I'm trying to update the document that my colleague in Finance sent me.

The Fix:

Relax, the file is probably just on a different path for your computer. What you need to do is find out where the file actually is, and then update the link so that Word looks in the right place. Proceed as follows :

1. In the Word document, choose Edit Links to display the Links dialog box (see Figure 9-2). Click the link thats not working (the Update column will probably say "N/A" to indicate that the link is not available), and then check the "Source file" readout in the "Source information for selected link" box. If the readout is too short for you to make out the file's path and name , click the Change Source button and use the "Look in" drop-down list to see the full path.

   Figure 9-2. If Word tells you that it can't find the linked file, you may need to use the Links dialog box to edit the link to match the file's new location.

   
   

2. Open a Windows Explorer window to the folder that's supposed to contain the file and try to locate it. Most likely, either the folder is on a different path for your computer, or someone has moved or renamed the file. If you're out of luck, someone has deleted the file.

3. Once you know where the file is, click the Change Source button and use the Change Source dialog box to tell Word where the file is.

4. In the Links dialog box, click the Update Now button to update the link.

   ---

   Tip: In the Links dialog box, you can also break a link so that it no longer works. It's a good idea to break a link before sending a document to someone for whom the link will not work. Update the link before breaking it, and the document will contain the latest data available.

   ---