Linked Excel table with preserve formatting doesn't update correctly when inserting a row

Question

I think I have found a bug in the current version of Word 365.  If you have a linked excel and preserve formatting selected, the formatting breaks when inserting a line in the table.

Steps to reproduce:

Step1:

Create blank excel document

Create a simple table of data in Excel

Select the table and give it a bookmark name:

Save the file

Step2:

Link this into word and update the source of the link to use the reference instead of a row set.

Set the table layout to "Autofit Window"

Step 3:

In excel, insert a new row in the table.  Return to word and the table formatting is broken on the last line of the table.  It is always the last line which has broken formatting irrespective of where the new line is inserted

Note: there is a number of secondary bugs here as well.

1 - When changing the source link on a linked excel in word, if you enter a filename first, after selecting "item", the file name loses its extension.

2 - If you don't use a bookmark but simply reference "Table1" it adds 3 columns and 3 rows to the table which is copied over to word.

3 - If you choose to keep the source formatting and then set the table in word to fit to window, the table loses its fit to window formatting on update, but there is no way in excel to specify fit to window.

Anyway if someone could verify this?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi Adam,

We tried to replicate the scenario here in our end, and we needed a few information so we can investigate the issue further. I've sent you a private message. Kindly check your inbox. 

To notify us and have us get back to you, simply reply to this post.

Answer 2

Thanks for your prompt return,

I have replied to your private message with the requested information

Please let me know if you need anything else.

Answer 3

Thank you for standing by, Adam. This issue has been discussed together with our Support Engineers and it wasn't confirmed a bug yet. With that, we highly suggest sending a frown in the Feedback of the Excel app that you're using. This feature will screenshot what you're doing on your end and send it to the Internal Team right away. This is being used to gather suggestions from the users that can help in the improvement of the said application.

Go to File > Feedback.

See the screenshot below:

You may also refer to this article: How do I give feedback on Microsoft Office for more information.

Should you need any additional assistance regarding other Microsoft services, feel free to post your query anytime.

Answer 4

Thanks for responding,

I would suggest tho, that given that there are multiple bugs in this feature (linked excel in word) that the support engineering team take into account the MS office telemetry and see how many people actually use linked excel files in word vs copy pasting an excel table into word.

I have tried (i think) every possibly way to attempt to use this feature in a real world scenario and it is simply an unworkable feature the way it currently is - the result essentially generates more work than copying and pasting.  I can only imagine (nearly) noone uses it.

While I fully appreciate there are limited engineering resources and a prioritization of bugs to fix, I think it really comes down to what kind of behavior you wish to enable and promote - I'd rather my colleagues stop wasting time copying and pasting and reformatting data all over the place.  Sadly until this (or the related issue - number 3 in original post) is fixed, copy paste will remain the norm of the day and another great feature simply gets ignored.  Just fyi, this small feature working correctly could potentially save over 100 hours of work a year in my organisation alone.

Adam

Answer 5

See if you can reproduce the issue in a new, blank document. If you can't, most likely the affected table (in the affected document) is (mildly) corrupt. You can try converting the table to text and the convert it back to a table again.