How to Transfer Data from Excel to Word Automatically

Excel lives up to its name when crunching numbers or organizing data. However, when you want to convey ideas beyond the table or graph, you will almost certainly turn to Word or PowerPoint. In the examples below, we are going to look at several different ways you can export, or incorporate, spreadsheets into your Word documents.

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Find out the Variety of Options to Transfer Data

To follow using our example, download ExportWorksheetsToWord.xlsx. You will need a blank Word document open. This feature applies to Excel/Word 2010 and later versions. Images were taken using Excel 2013 on Windows 7.

Solution One: Copy/Paste

The simplest way to display Excel data in a Word document is to use Copy/Paste.

  1. Open the destination Word document.
  2. In the source Excel spreadsheet, select the data you want to copy then hit CTRL-C.
  3. In the destination Word document, place the cursor where you want the data, then hit CTRL-V.

  1. The default paste will use the Keep Source Formatting (A) paste option. This preserves any formatting you have done in Excel and pastes the data into Word as a table using that same formatting. As you can see, you may need to clean up your table after the paste to make it look correct in the new document.
  2. To change the paste option, click the Ctrl dropdown option in the bottom right corner of your new table after pasting and select a new option. Other Paste options include:
    Use Destination Styles (B) – This will paste the data into Word as a table and adapt the display elements into the same formatting as the Word document. Use this to make your fonts and colors consistent in the destination without having to edit in Excel beforehand.Copy as Picture(C) – This will paste the data range as a Word image object. You will be able to resize and edit the image as you would any other picture, but you will not be able to edit the data. The paste will use the original Excel formatting to generate the picture.Keep Text Only (D) – This will paste the data contained within each cell as individual lines of text in the Word document. Data in columns will be separated by a tab, rows will appear as individual paragraphs.

Hint! If you frequently use a paste option that is not Keep Source Formatting, you can click the Set Default Paste link and change the default settings in the Cut, copy and paste section of Word Options.

Solution Two: Insert Excel Object

Copy/Paste brings Excel tables or Worksheet data into the Word document by changing it to a Word table or text. Inserting your workbook as an Excel object embeds a mini-version of Excel itself into the middle of your Word document. This Excel object can include multiple sheets, filters and many of Excel’s features.

  1. Click the Insert tab the destination Word document, then select Object from the Insert EmbeddedObject dropdown button.

  1. Select the Create from File tab, then browse to the workbook you wish to embed.
  2. Choose whether you wish the object to be linked or not:
    1. A linked object will automatically update in the destination Word document if the source Excel spreadsheet is changed.
    2. An object that is not linked will not be updated automatically in the Word document if the source is changed.

    If your object is not linked, you can edit the data directly – including formulas – from within Word. Double-click on the table and make changes as you would in Excel. If the object is linked, then clicking on the table will open the Excel window.

    Solution Three: Insert a Blank Excel Table

    If you will be creating or entering your data table from scratch within Word, but want the functionality of an Excel spreadsheet, you can embed a blank Excel spreadsheet and work just as you would in Excel.

    1. Click the Insert tab, then select Excel Spreadsheet from the Table dropdown menu.
    2. Double-click on the worksheet. The Excel ribbon will appear and you will be able to add your data, insert formulas and filter and display the data as if you were working directly in Excel.
    3. Click outside the spreadsheet pane or hit Escape to continue editing your Word document.