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Mike JacobsFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Can we open an Excel spreadsheet directly from within Word?

One of my client workstations has lost functionality, in the last month, that they've had for years. It allowed them to open an excel spreadsheet directly from within Word (with no special measures - eg no "insert/object/browse" etc). They used to do this routinely when creating their invoices. They'd open the last one created for any given customer, then modify it and save the modified one under a new name, which would also be an excel spreadsheet.


This was news to me and everything I find on line suggests it's never been that simple. There are ways to import or insert spreadsheets into word docs but none are as simple as just navigating to the spreadsheet, from within word, and opening it. 


I'd rather not accuse the client of hallucinating so my question is:


Does anyone know of any way to achieve that explicit functionality in current versions of Office?. (The client is using Office 2019 Pro)


Avatar of Bill Prew
Bill Prew

Well, they could have a link to the Excel file in the Word document.  Then if they just CTRL-Click on that link it will immediately open that file in Excel.

To create the link it's as simple as Insert, Link, To Existing File, and then browse to the Excel file.

No idea if this is what they might have, but it sounds similar to what they are experiencing.


»bp
Avatar of Mike Jacobs

ASKER

nope. No embedded links or insert involved.

Well then, what mechanics do they actually go through when they are in Word to "bring up" the Excel sheet.  It would be helpful if you (they) could describe that process...


»bp

nothing at all complicated


open a blank word doc,

file/open/browse to last xl invoice

open

it then opens, as an editable spreadsheet within word. 


As I said, this was news to me. And I've never witnessed it happening as described. They MAY be simply imagining it or forgetting that, up till now, they always done something else as well, which makes that possible. 


So I'm either looking for a simple "oh yeah, this is how we do that" or

a categoric declaration (preferably with evidence or references) that what they're describing is, and always has been, impossible. 


I'm in a slightly awkward position, which many of the contributors here will recognise. 


The workstation in question was unusable 3 weeks ago and I performed a Rollback to a snapshot about a week prior.  They complain that although the machine is now up and running better than it has for about a year, that particular functionality has evaporated since the fix. So, naturally, I'm to blame...












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Bill Prew

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i have used this for different versions of Word for over 20 years:

Insert tab ―> Text options ―> Object

User generated image

User generated imagebrows for the excel file you want to insert


just saying, the method 

open a blank word doc,
file/open/browse to last xl invoice
open
it then opens, as an editable spreadsheet within word.

is correct, except you have to use 

open a blank word doc,
Insert/Text/Create from file/browse to last xl invoice
open
it then opens, as an editable spreadsheet within word.


Paul,

Can the user then save that as a spreadsheet (an Excel file, not a Word file) that’s what the poster indicates they did before.

They'd open the last one created for any given customer, then modify it and save the modified one under a new name, which would also be an excel spreadsheet.

@Bill Prew

I can rule out custom vbas or anything similar. I personally built the box and installed all the software. The rollback took the station back to the state in which the user claims that behaviour was available. 


@Paul Sauve

What you're describing is exactly what I found as well. 


But the users are completely unaware of the 

"Insert/Text/Create from file/browse to last xl invoice " requirement and didn't even know how to find it. 


What I'm getting from this exchange is confirmation of my own initial reaction. 


The users are, I think, mildly deluded and must have been opening the spreadsheets in Excel and have forgotten that. So now my problem is how to tell them that without causing denial rage! 


I'll close the question but if I find anything that challenges this conclusion