For my clients i made a Word-document (.rtf) that links to an
excel-file (.xls). The documents link fine (and automatically) under
Windows'98/Word'97/Excel'97 and WindowsXP/Word 2002/Excel 2002. Both
files are saved formatted as Word'97 (as .rtf) and Excel'97.

One of my clients installed Office 2003, now the links do not update
anymore. The client gets a message "Do you want to link?", he answers
"Yes" and gets the message that links cannot be found. Both documents
are in the same map on drive c: en the links are "hard coded" to the
name of the document in that map en the cells in the .xls-file.

The excel-file has some macro's that execute when the document opens.
I tested it using middle en low security for macro's in Excel (the
macro's are not 'trustworthy signed' yet) with the programs above.

First i had problems with the size of the excel-objects in the
word-file (to large), after i reduced the size in excel (8 points
Arial)

The links between de Word and the Excel-file where made as follows:

- i opened the word-document
- i opened the excel-document
- i selected in excel the range with the data and chose for "Copy"
- In Word i chose "Paste Special", "Paste Link" and "Excel-object"

I did this for al the 158 ranges i needed in the Word-document.
When i view the 158 links in Word 2002 (menu Edit/Links). I find that
all the links pointing to the right map, file and range. The links
should automatically update.

The same word-document is used to link with the quartely changing
excel-file in order to get a quarterly report.

Hi Dick,

There are a couple of factors that might be a problem, here. One is
that Word 2003 will no longer automatically update links, it's a
security risk. See

http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=330079
WD: How the Behavior of the Word Fields Changes After You Install the
Word Update

The other would be if the user has once SAVED the document (IOW, it
works to begin with, but later doesn't). Then he should check the
setting in Tools/OPtions/General/Web Options/Files that says something
about updating links when saving. If this is activated, it can cause
all kinds of problems; have him try turning it off.

For my clients i made a Word-document (.rtf) that links to an
excel-file (.xls). The documents link fine (and automatically) under
Windows'98/Word'97/Excel'97 and WindowsXP/Word 2002/Excel 2002. Both
files are saved formatted as Word'97 (as .rtf) and Excel'97.

One of my clients installed Office 2003, now the links do not update
anymore. The client gets a message "Do you want to link?", he answers
"Yes" and gets the message that links cannot be found. Both documents
are in the same map on drive c: en the links are "hard coded" to the
name of the document in that map en the cells in the .xls-file.

The excel-file has some macro's that execute when the document opens.
I tested it using middle en low security for macro's in Excel (the
macro's are not 'trustworthy signed' yet) with the programs above.

First i had problems with the size of the excel-objects in the
word-file (to large), after i reduced the size in excel (8 points
Arial)

The links between de Word and the Excel-file where made as follows:

- i opened the word-document
- i opened the excel-document
- i selected in excel the range with the data and chose for "Copy"
- In Word i chose "Paste Special", "Paste Link" and "Excel-object"

I did this for al the 158 ranges i needed in the Word-document.
When i view the 158 links in Word 2002 (menu Edit/Links). I find that
all the links pointing to the right map, file and range. The links
should automatically update.

The same word-document is used to link with the quartely changing
excel-file in order to get a quarterly report.


Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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