Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Embedding an Excel Chart in a Word Document.

Embedding an Excel Chart in a Word Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 19, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

1

Most of the time, Microsoft Office applications work fairly well together. For instance, you might be creating a report for a presentation, and you need to include a chart along with the report. Fortunately, you can embed an Excel chart directly within a report you happen to be creating in Word. This is done in the following manner:

  1. Select the Excel chart you wish to embed in your Word document. (Make sure you select the entire chart, and not just a portion of it.)
  2. Press Ctrl+C to copy the chart to the Clipboard.
  3. Switch to the Word document.
  4. Position the insertion pointer where you want the chart placed.
  5. Click the down-arrow under the Paste option in the Clipboard group of the Home tab of the ribbon, then choose Paste Special. The Paste Special dialog box appears. (See Figure 1.)

    6. Figure 1. The Paste Special dialog box in Word.

  6. Select the Microsoft Excel Chart Object option.
  7. Make sure the Paste Link radio button is selected.
  8. Click on OK. Word inserts the linked chart in your document.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10427) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Embedding an Excel Chart in a Word Document.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is six more than 3?

2020-06-16 03:23:30

Richard Curtis

Does this process rely on the Excel & Word documents remaining in the same respective folders? Our documents, especially those generated using Word, are stored in a document management system not a folder structure. Can a linked Excel chart survive this?

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