If you need to use data linking technology in a document, Microsoft Office applications provide two ways to do this:
- By using a remote reference formula, which can be entered from the keyboard or inserted into the document with the Paste Special command, chosen from the list that appears when you click the arrow on the Paste button in the Clipboard group on the Home tab of the ribbon.
- By using macros that control Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE).
Many Microsoft Office applications can receive data from other applications in the suite, and when the data changes in the server application, it is automatically updated in the client application.
You can choose how the linked data will be updated: automatically or manually. If updates are performed manually, the linked applications run faster.
To link, for example, a Microsoft Office Word 2010 client document to another application, follow these steps:
- Open the Word client document and the server application.
- Activate the server application, i.e., switch to it.
- Select the data to be linked.
- On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Clipboard group, click Copy.
- Activate the Word client document and place the cursor where the linked data should be inserted.
- On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Clipboard group, click the arrow on the Paste button and select Paste Special.
- In the Paste Special window that opens, select the Link option, choose the linking method from the As list, and click OK.
TIP
When working with Microsoft Office documents, it is convenient to use hyperlinks.
You can also link a Word 2010 client document to another application by using the Object insertion window. To do this, go to the Insert tab of the ribbon, in the Text group, click the arrow on the Object button, and select Object. In the Object window that opens, go to the Create from File tab .
In the File name field, specify the location of the server application (using the Browse button if necessary), and check the boxes for Link to file and Display as icon. You can also choose an appropriate icon to be displayed in the document by using the Change Icon button.
As a result, your document will contain an icon, and clicking it will open the corresponding server application.
NOTE
If in the Object window on the Create from File tab you select only the Link to file checkbox, then the content of the server document will be displayed in the client document.
Clicking it will open the server document.
For Microsoft Office applications, you can specify the data update mode: go to the File tab of the ribbon and click Options. In the window that opens, select the Advanced category on the left, and in the General group on the right, check the Update automatic links at open option.
NOTE
When inserting images into a document using the Insert Picture window (go to the Insert tab of the ribbon and in the Illustrations group click Picture), you can also configure the link between the Word document and the graphic file: in the Insert Picture window, click the arrow on the Insert button and select the desired command.