Objective 3. Open a Word Document That Includes a Linked Object, and Update Links

Table of contents:

Activity 4.3. Opening a Word Document That Includes a Linked Object

Information about any links is saved with the Word document. By default, when you open the document, Word checks the linked files and prompts you to apply any changes.

Open the file Weekly_Sales_Chart_Firstname_Lastname. A message box displays. See Figure 4.4.

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Figure 4.4.

The message box asks whether you want to update the data in the document. Click Yes.

Any changes made to the Excel file will be changed in the Word object as well. This is an automatic update.

Activity 4.4. Updating a Linked Object

When you inserted the Excel chart in the Word document, you selected the Link to file option in Excel. Now you can select other options for how the link to the Excel file will update the Word document.


1.	On the Edit menu, click Links. The Links dialog box opens. See Figure 4.5. Figure 4.5. [Page 1380]The file path for the linked Excel file displays under Source file. The option button for Automatic update is selected by default. When you opened the Word document, it automatically looked at the Excel document for any changes and then updated the data in Word. More Knowledge: Using Manual Update Instead If you wanted to use Manual update instead, you could control which file links you wanted to update and when to update them. You would not see the update message box when the document opened.
2.	Click Cancel to leave the selected options as Automatic update. In the options, check that automatic update for links is also selected.
3.	On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the General tab. Under General options, the Update automatic links at Open check box should be selected. See Figure 4.6. Figure 4.6.
4.	Click OK.
5.	Save your file, and then Close the file.