Linked WORD and Excel Docs

Question

We have eight (8) types of reports (WORD Docs) each having there own linked Excel .  We refer to these as "shells" or "templates". When there is a new assignment the desire is to copy the "shell/template", rename it and put it in a new job folder.  Example; Shell 1 has a WORD Doc and a linked Excel. We have a new assignment, Job number 1234.  We want to copy Shell 1  with consisting of the WORD and Excel Doc to a new folder labeled Job 1234 and rename the WORD Doc and the Excel File 1234 WORD and 1234 Excel.

In the new folder would be two documents that are linked to one another (1234 WORD & 1234 Excel) and the link has been maintained after moving it. When doing this now the links break after renaming and/or moving.

I have read many articles and it appears this cannot be done in this manner as the links, although moved, remain linked to the original source.  There are many links in these documents from the Excel to the WORD doc so redoing the links for every assignment is not an option.

Is there any cure or workaround available to solve our issue? In summary, is there any way to create shells/templates that are linked and then be able to copy and rename without losing the links.  Willing to try anything as it is critical to our our business.

If it matters, we will be using SharePoint to store/file each Shell/template and copy and rename the template to  a folder for the next assignment.

Thank you.

Lee

Answer 1

When you create a link from Word to Excel, the LINK field path is always absolute. As such, you can move the Word file but not the Excel workbook. If you do move (or rename) the Excel workbook, you will need to edit the link(s) to point to the new filename/location. You can do that via File>Edit Links or by pressing Alt-F9 to expose the LINK field codes and editing the links. If there are multiple links to the same file, this could be done via Find/Replace. Do note the need for \ as the path separators.

Answer 2

Has there been anything further on this query? The answer from Maropod is just reiterating the issue the OP has - that links are absolute and it is very inefficient to edit each individual link just to change the root file path or file name for a new document.

Answer 3

Thanks for the quick reply. I've read your other post as well and doing a find and replace is not a great solution for rolling out across multiple users in a company. It seems like the software (MS W) is only suitable for home use, and doesn't have the functionality for a commercial setting.

Answer 4

The OP's situation is one where a"misusing" mail merge may be an option.  It would require that all of the data that is to be linked be brought to the second row of a sheet in the workbook, with "field names" in the first row.  Merge fields would be inserted into the Word Document (Template) where the data was required and when the "merge" was previewed, the data would be displayed in those fields.  When the document and the workbook were moved\copied to another location, it would be necessary to re-connect the data source, but nothing more would be required.  When the document was finalised, the merge fields could be unlinked from the data source if required, by just executing the merge.

Answer 5

There has been no change in the past 12 months...

If you need a means of 'relativising' the paths, check out the solution I've posted at:

http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/154379-Word-Fields-and-Relative-Paths-to-External-Files