Creating Charts in Excel

Linking Charts to Word

• Open Word as you normally would.
• Create a document.
• Click on Insert in Word's menu bar.
• Select Object.

  

• Click on the Create from File tab in the Object dialog box.
• Click on Browse.
• Insert the Excel file containing the chart you want to link.
• Check the Link to file box.
• Click on OK.

  

• The chart will automatically be inserted into your word document.
• Use the formatting and sizing tools to adjust the chart. We strongly recommend that you do this. The chart is rather large when it is inserted and demands some adjustments. We formatted and resized the chart you see below so that it would fit properly within our document.

  

Updating Linked Charts to Word

• Make the desired changes to your chart in Excel. We changed our column chart to a pie chart.
• Save your work.
• Open Word.
• Find and select the linked chart.
• Right click on your mouse.
• Click on Update Link.

  

• Your chart will automatically be updated to reflect the changes.

  

• Make any necessary adjustments. The updated chart will comply with any previous formatting or size adjustments made to the original chart, so this may not be necessary.

Editing Linked Charts from Word

For this example, we changed a column chart to a doughnut chart.

• Select the linked chart in Word.
• Right click your mouse.
• Select Linked Worksheet Object.
• Select Edit or Open.
  We selected Edit.

  

• The chart will open up in Excel.
• Make the desired changes to the chart.
• Return to Word.
• You will see that the changes have been made to your chart.

  

• Close Excel.
• Decide whether or not to keep the changes. If you decide not to keep the changes in Excel, it will not affect the chart in Word. The chart in Word will maintain your changes until you update or edit it.