Insert an Excel Chart or Table into Word: Link or Embed

You want a chart or table from Excel to appear in a Word document, and you need to decide whether it should update when the spreadsheet changes.

Why: When you paste, Word offers two very different behaviours. Linked content stays connected to the Excel file and refreshes when the data changes — great for reports you rerun. Embedded content is a frozen copy that travels inside the Word file and never changes, even if you edit the original spreadsheet. Pick the wrong one and your “live” report quietly goes stale.

Step 1: Copy the chart or table in Excel

1. In Excel, click the chart (or select the cell range for a table).
2. Press Ctrl+C to copy.

Step 2: Paste into Word and choose link or embed

1. In Word, click where you want it, then open the Paste Options dropdown (the small arrow under the Paste button on the Home tab, or right-click and look at the paste icons).
2. Choose the option that matches what you want:
   • Use Destination Theme & Link Data — links to the workbook and restyles the chart to match your Word document. This is the default for charts.
   • Keep Source Formatting & Link Data — links to the workbook but keeps the chart’s Excel styling.
   • Use Destination Theme & Embed Workbook — embeds a fixed copy, styled to match Word.
   • Keep Source Formatting & Embed Workbook — embeds a fixed copy with its Excel styling.
   • Picture — pastes it as a static image you can’t edit or refresh.

For a table, the equivalent linked choices are Link & Use Destination Styles and Link & Keep Source Formatting.

Rule of thumb: choose a Link option if the data will change and you want Word to follow it; choose Embed if you want a self-contained document that won’t move.

Step 3: Update a linked chart later

When the Excel data changes, the linked chart in Word doesn’t always refresh on its own.

1. In Word, click the linked chart.
2. Go to Chart Design > Refresh Data.

The chart redraws using the latest numbers from the workbook. (Keep the Excel file in the same place — if you move or rename it, the link breaks.)

FAQ

My chart in Word didn’t update after I changed Excel. It’s either embedded (a fixed copy by design) or linked but not refreshed. Click it and use Chart Design > Refresh Data. If nothing happens, it was pasted as embedded or as a picture.

The chart says it can’t find the source. The linked workbook was moved, renamed, or deleted. Restore the file to its original path, or re-paste the chart from the workbook’s new location.

I want it to never change — which option? Use Keep Source Formatting & Embed Workbook, or paste as a Picture if you don’t need to edit it at all.

Sources: Microsoft Support — Insert a chart from an Excel spreadsheet into Word