Microsoft Office

Sharing Data with Other Applications 29
You can find all the various paste options for Word in the Paste Special dialog box, which appears when you
choose Home ➪ Clipboard ➪ Paste ➪ Paste Special.
If you use Word’s standard paste command (Home ➪ Clipboard ➪ Paste, or Ctrl+V), you’ll
find that the paste method varies, depending on what is pasted. An Excel range copied and
pasted to Word is pasted as a static table. An Excel chart, on the other hand, is pasted as a link.
NOTE
Pasting static information
Often, you don’t need a link when you copy data from Excel to Word. For example, if you’re preparing a
report in your word processor and you simply want to include a range of data from an Excel worksheet, you
probably don’t need to create a link (unless the data in the Excel worksheet may be changed). After you’ve
copied an Excel range, activate Word and choose Home ➪ Clipboard ➪ Paste or press Ctrl+V. The range
appears as a Word table, and is not linked to the Excel workbook.
For more control over pasting, use the Paste Special dialog box. Figure 29.1 shows Word’s Paste Special dialog
box when you’ve copied an Excel range and chosen the Paste option. If you select one of the choices in
the Paste Special dialog box with the Paste option selected, the data is pasted without creating a link.
FIGURE 29.1
Word’s paste options when an Excel range is on the Clipboard.
The paste options in Word’s Paste Special dialog box when a range is copied include
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Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet Object: You can edit this object with Excel. Double-click,
and Word’s Ribbon is replaced with Excel’s Ribbon. See “Embedding an Excel range in a Word
document,” later in this chapter.
Formatted Text (RTF): The range is pasted as a table, with some formatting retained.
Unformatted Text: Only the raw information is pasted, with no formatting. Cells are separated
with a Tab character.
Picture (Windows Metafile): The range is pasted as a picture.
Bitmap: The range is pasted as a picture.
Picture (Enhanced Metafile): The range is pasted as a picture.
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