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How to embed or link an Excel file in PowerPoint?

If you’re making a PowerPoint, you’ll want to make sure that you’re able to add all of the useful data you can to support the presentation. Though this can prove to be challenging if you limit yourself to the tools already present in PowerPoint, the task becomes much easier if you work on your project by importing the information you’ve created with other tools, like Microsoft Excel.

Importing information from Excel allows you to provide additional resources to demonstrate your points while you present your PowerPoint slides. Doing this will enable you to make your points more clearly, give people more than one way to understand the information you’re offering, and makes your presentation more relatable.

Are you ready to learn about how to make your presentations more productive by learning how to embed an excel file in PowerPoint? Continue reading for our step by step guide on how to make sure your files are correctly linked in Excel. 

1. To start, open up your PowerPoint program and look at the main header. You’ll see a series of tabs. Click on the Inserttab.

2. Once you’ve clicked on the Insert tab, you’ll want to examine the actions and find the Object button. Click on it.

How to embed an Excel file in PowerPoint

3. When the dialog box for the Insert Object button appears, you’ll see several options. You can either create a new object or create an object from a file. You’ll want to select the option that prompts you to Create from file.

How to link data in Excel

4. Next, click Browse and go through all your Excel data files. One of the highly crucial aspects of learning how to link data in excel is to know which documents will flow well with your presentation. You should have looked through your files previously to get an idea of what might work well with this PowerPoint. Click the file with the necessary data that you’d like to link to your page.

5. After you’ve selected the file, click the Link box next to the Browse button and then select Ok. It should look like this:

Insert object in PowerPoint

Now is when you are provided a link to your presentation! It’s important to remember, however, that the first work page in your Excel workbook will be the data that is displayed in the slides.

If you want to link a specific section of data to PowerPoint, you’ll have to take slightly different steps.

  1. First, you’ll want to open your workbook to the spot you’d like to export the data from. 
  2. Now, drag over the area of the workbook data that you’d like to link into your presentation and then click Copy, on the Home tab.
  3. Next, while still in PowerPoint, click the slide where you want to paste the link to your worksheet data. This action will help to prepare you for the final set of instructions.
  4. Click on the Paste Special option. It should be located on the Home tab, directly below the Paste function.
Special paste Excel link

5. In the Paste Special box, check the Paste link option. Then, you will be prompted to select an option under the As:section. Choose Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object.

Linked in Excel

2 comments

  1. Kyle Greer

    Hi, Stacy!
    I have followed your tutorial and found that it works! A BIG THANK YOU!!!

    My next step is to add multiple workbooks to the presentation that have cells that are referenced to one another. This way, when someone needs me to correct a number in the presentation the whole presentation can update itself.

    Do you think this could work?

    Thanks again!

    1. Hi Kyle,
      To use data from Excel tables and workbooks in your PowerPoint presentation with automatic updates, follow these steps:
      1. Open PowerPoint and create a new presentation or open an existing one.
      2. Go to the slide where you want to place the data from Excel.
      3. In the PowerPoint menu, select “Insert.”
      4. Then choose “Object” and in the window that appears, select “Create from File.”
      5. Click the “Browse” button and locate the Excel file containing the desired table or workbook.
      6. Check the “Link” box to create a connection between the data in Excel and PowerPoint. This will ensure that the data in the presentation is automatically updated when the data in the Excel file changes.
      7. Click the “OK” button to insert the linked data onto the slide.
      Now, when you make changes to the linked cells in the Excel file, the data in the PowerPoint presentation will automatically update. Please note that for the data in the presentation to update, the Excel file must be open. If the data doesn’t update automatically, you can try updating it manually by right-clicking on the linked data in PowerPoint and selecting “Update Link.”

      I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any further questions or need assistance.

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