Tip of the Day

Microsoft Office Tip #12

There are several choices for pasting an Excel table into Word or PowerPoint.  Here's how to select the best choice for your purposes. 

1. Highlight the cells you want to copy in Excel and copy to the clipboard (right click and select COPY). 

2. In Word place your curser where you want to paste the selection, and from the top menu select EDIT - PASTE SPECIAL (not PASTE).

3. Choose one of the following options that best meets your requirements:

   1. Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object - Inserts the cells with full formatting.  When you click on the table image, you can edit the cells as if you were in Excel (Actually Excel will run in the background).

   2. Formatted Text (RTF) - Inserts the cells with text formatting as if you created a Word table.  You can size the rows and columns and format text using Word table commands.

   3. Unformatted Text - Inserts the cells with the following formatting:  Rows are separated by line breaks and columns are separated by tabs.  The text is not formatted (no bold, etc.).

   4. Picture (Windows Metafile) - Inserts the table as a vector graphic (meaning you can resize and keep full image quality).  Additionally each object, such as a letter or word, can be edited individually.

   5. Bitmap - Inserts the table as a bitmap graphic (meaning it is one single object made up of dots).  When you enlarge the image you lose quality.  You cannot edit any individual object, such as a word.  Best when you don't want others to edit the table data or properties.

   6. Picture (Enhanced Metafile) - Similar function to Windows metafile.

   7. HTML Format - Similar to Formatted Text (RTF).  Best when creating a web page in Word.

4. For any of the above options, you can click the Paste Link button in the Paste Special dialog box to link the object to the original Excel table.  When you change the data in Excel, it will automatically change in the Word document.