Linking Office Objects
By now, you've probably used the Clipboard to cut or copy content between and within Office 2000 applications. The Clipboard is one of the most significant tools that Windows offers, and Office 2000 makes it even more powerful by giving you the ability to cut, copy, and paste several objects as a group or one at a time.
For all that power and convenience, however, the pasting process is limited. For example, after you've pasted an Excel chart into your PowerPoint slide, any changes made to the Excel chart or to the data that supports it are not reflected in the pasted copy of the chart in PowerPoint. Simple pasting establishes no connection between the copied chart and its source. To establish such a connection, you must link the source and the target, so that the target can be updated when opened to reflect changes in the source.
Using Paste Special to Create a Link
How is a link between two applications established? By using the Edit, Paste Special command as described in the following steps:
In the source document, select the content to be copied to your PowerPoint slide (the target). Figure 18.1 shows a section of an Excel worksheet, selected for copying.
Choose Edit, Copy.
Switch to or open your PowerPoint presentation, and go to Slide View of the target slide.
Choose Edit, Paste Special. The Paste Special dialog box opens (see Figure 18.2).
Click the Paste Link option. If more than one type of object is displayed in the As box, select the one that most closely matches the source of your content. Figure 18.3 shows the As options for the selected Excel content.
Click OK to insert the linked content.
Figure 18.2. When pasting Excel worksheet content, PowerPoint displays that object type in the As box.
Figure 18.3. PowerPoint correctly assesses the nature of the content to be linked and offers appropriate options.
Tip
Click to place an X in the Display as Icon check box. Your linked object will appear as an icon, its represented content visible only if you (or a person viewing your presentation) want to see it. To view a link icon, double-click it.
After your linked object is inserted, test the link—go back to the source application and make a change to the content. Switch back to the target slide, and view the updated content—it now reflects the change made to the source.
Tip
You can resize the linked object by dragging diagonally from the object's corner handles. Drag inward to shrink the object, outward to increase its size.
Caution
Excel doesn't work properly unless you make sure you save the workbook file before creating the link the first time.
Updating Links
After a link is established, each time you open the target presentation, you'll be prompted to update the link (see Figure 18.4). This prompt enables you to choose whether to allow any changes that have occurred in the source document to update the linked content in your PowerPoint presentation.
Figure 18.4. Click OK to update the target file with any changes that have been made to the source content.
Why would you choose not to update your target file? Perhaps you need to print the presentation with the older data or save it before changes are made, so that a historical reference will be available in the future. Perhaps your presentation pertains to second-quarter sales, and the source content has been updated with third-quarter data, which you're not ready to use. If for any reason you want to maintain the target data in its current form, click Cancel.
If you choose not to update the links at the time that you open the file, you can always update them later by following these steps:
Choose Edit, Links. The Links dialog box opens (see Figure 18.5), displaying a list of files that are linked to your open document.
Choose the link you want to update, and click the Update Now button.
Maintaining Links
For the most part, links you establish between files with Paste Special require little or no active maintenance on your part. To be sure your links remain intact, simply follow these basic rules:
Don't rename the source or the target file
Don't move or delete the source file
Don't move or delete the target file
If you must move or rename either the source or target file, you will have to reestablish the link through the Links dialog box while in the target file. Click the Change Source button and navigate to the source file's new location, as shown in Figure 18.6.
Figure 18.6. The Change Source dialog box allows you to find, select, and reestablish a link between a source and target if one of the files has been moved or renamed.
When making changes to your source document, remember that it is linked to a target file—whether you're editing content or applying formats, make sure that these changes will be useful in the target document. If you need to make changes to the source that won't be appropriate in the target, consider breaking the link. You'll have to update the former target manually (to make content changes), but you won't risk unwanted changes to the target file.
Caution
If you aren't the only person using the source or target files, be sure to alert other users to changes you make to the source that may not be appropriate in the target file. If another user chooses to update a link, he or she may be unhappy with the resulting changes.
Removing the Link Between Source and Target Files
After a link is established, it remains in force (even if updates between the source and target are rarely or never performed) unless one or both of the files are moved or renamed. Moving or renaming either the source or target file breaks the link between the files because the files can't "find" each other anymore.
Although this method technically breaks the link, it doesn't do a very clean job. The target document continues to store a record of a link back to a now-moved or renamed file. To make a clean break, severing all ties and any record between your source and target files, follow these steps:
In the target file, choose Edit, Links.
In the Links dialog box (see Figure 18.7), select the link you want to break.
Figure 18.7. Formally sever your link between the source and the target file by using the Links dialog box to break the link.
Click the Break Link button.
After the link is broken, the pasted content remains in the target document, but retains no connection to the source data. Changes made to the source are not reflected in the target, and when opening the target file, you will not be prompted to update your link.
Note
A linked paragraph or table from Word or a worksheet section from Excel is seen as an object. After a link is broken, the pasted content is seen as a picture, a simple graphic component of your slide.
Tip
One benefit of breaking a link by moving or renaming the source or target file is that the link can be reestablished easily by putting the file back where it was or renaming it to the original filename. Many users use this technique to make a temporary break, allowing changes to the source without the risk of updating the target until it becomes appropriate .