I need to import data that I load into Excel from another application, into a word report file. I had tried using the link function where you can create a linkage between Excel and Word. This did work, but I found the links would break, when sharing files via email etc. and I also need to refresh Excel data from the application and want these updated values to be reflected in the report. Each row in the Excel data has a unique name and then some cells of that same record have fields that I would want to import. I was thinking I might be able to have tags in the word report which could be replaced by the Excel data when I finalize. So for example the line in the Word document might look like this:

The detail narrative wording for process A is as follows: <Process A><Narrative>
The summary narrative wording for process A is as follows: <Process A><Summary>
The detail narrative wording for process B is as follows: <Process B><Narrative>
The summary narrative wording for process B is as follows: <Process B><Summary>

Then in Excel, I would have the data such as

Process A, Here is the narrative text A, Here is the summary text A
Process B, Here is the narrative text B, Here is the summary text B
Process C, Here is the narrative text C, Here is the summary text C

I was thinking a VLOOKUP or something similar would be great to pull from Excel but I don't believe that will work from a Word document.

Any ideas on how to approach this would be appreciated.



Thanks, Matt

OR

Does anyone know how to maintain the links between Excel and Word when the files are transferred to a different machine?

What you're describing may be amenable to mailmerge. With a mailmerge, the output remains static (though you could use a preview, if that's all you need), that has its own advantages and generating an update is as simple as re-executing the merge. That also obviates any linkage issues when the mailmerge output document is emailed to someone else.

If, for some reason, you need to email the mailmerge main document, rather than the output document, re-establishing the mailmerge connection is much simpler than updating perhaps dozens of separate links.

If you're wedded to using links, though, and the email recipient's computer isn't connected to your network, you'll need to send the Excel workbook as well. Provided the Word document and the Excel workbook are stored in the same folder, you can use the macro attached to my post at http://windowssecrets.com/forums/sho...External-Files to do the link updating.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks Paul for this I am in the process of trying this solution.

I have added the macro and this works great. Thanks for your help on this one, this has been a huge help. Looks like as long as the excel and word file are in the same directory all works perfectly.