In a scenario where you have a data table set up in a Word document, you can convert the table into an Excel sheet, by simply importing it – no need to recreate the table in Excel!
Likewise, you can also easily import a text Word document into Excel.
We will show you in simple step-by-step instructions how you can do this.
This is useful to create a central access point to various Word documents. By embedding the document into Excel, the Word document itself will open when you double click on it.
Open an Excel spreadsheet into which you want to import the Word data.
Navigate to the cell where you want to import the data.
Click on the ‘Insert’ tab in the top menu bar to change the ribbon.
In the section ‘Text’, click on Object.
This opens the ‘Insert Object’ dialog box.
Click on the option ‘Create from file’.
Ensure the options ‘Link to file’ and ‘Display as icon’ boxes are not ticked.
Click on the Browse… button.
This will open the File Manager/Explorer window.
Navigate to the Word document that you want to import.
Once you have selected it, click on the Insert button.
The name of the Word document will now appear in the ‘Insert Object’ dialog box.
Click on the OK button at the bottom.
Excel embeds the Word document as an object.
Open the Word document that contains the data you want to import.
Click on the cross symbol in the top left corner of the table to select it.
Press CTRL+C on the keyboard to copy the data into the clipboard, OR click right and select ‘Copy’ from the menu that opened.
Close the Word document. (Optional)
Open the Excel spreadsheet into which you want to import the Word data.
Navigate to the cell from where you want to start importing the data. The cell you select will be the upper left starting point of the data you want to import.
Right-click on this cell to open a menu.
Excel offers you two Paste Options:
Pick one of the choices to import the data.
Excel imports the data into multiple cells. In our example below, we chose Match Destination Formatting.
This is useful if you have a simple Word document that only contains text – no images or graphs or tables.
If you have already created a project capturing information, but realize a spreadsheet will work better than a document, then this tool is for you to ensure you don’t have to redo your hard work.
Open the Word document that contains the data you want to import.
Click on the ‘File’ tab in the top menu bar.
This opens the ‘File’ menu.
In the left pane, click on the ‘Export’ option.
In the pane that opens, under Export, click on ‘Change File Type.’
Under the ‘Change File Type’ menu, select Plain Text.
Click on Save As.
This opens the File Manager.
Save your file as plain text type with an appropriate name. In some instances you will now see it saved as document_name.txt
Close the Word document. (Optional)
Open the Excel spreadsheet where you want to import the data.
Click on the ‘Data’ tab in the top menu bar to change the ribbon.
In the section ‘Get External Data’, click on the ‘From Text’ icon.
This opens the File Manager.
Navigate to the plain text file you have saved in step #2.
Click on the name of the plain text file.
Click on the Open button.
This opens the first dialog box of the Text Import Wizard.
Under the option ‘Choose the file type…’, click and select Delimited.
Make other changes if necessary.
Click on Next at the bottom of the dialog box.
This will open the second dialog box.
Click and select the ‘Tab’ option under ‘Delimiters’.
Make other changes if necessary.
Click on Next at the bottom of the dialog box.
This will open the third dialog box.
Under ‘Column data’ format, click and select ‘General’.
Make other changes if necessary.
Click on the Finish button at the bottom of the dialog box.
This opens the ‘Import Data’ dialog box.
Select the worksheet and the cell where Excel will import the data.
Click the OK button.
Excel imports the text data.
Right-click on the cell containing the data.
Select ‘Format Cells…’
This opens the ‘Format Cells’ dialog box.
Click on the ‘Alignment’ tab.
Under ‘Text control’, click and select ‘Wrap Text’.
Make other changes if necessary.
Click on OK at the bottom of the dialog box.
Excel formats the text data to fit into one cell.
We have shown you three methods of inserting Word data into Excel, depending on your needs and the type of data in your Word document.
