Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 16, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Carol would like to add a button to her Word ribbon that would open a new blank Excel workbook. She wonders if this is possible without using a macro.
The short answer is that it is, indeed, possible. There are two ways you could approach it, and the one you choose depends on what, exactly, you want to accomplish.
If you want to simply open Excel from within Word, you can follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Word Options dialog box.
Now you can click the Microsoft Excel tool on the Quick Access Toolbar, and the Excel program is started. If, instead, you want the Microsoft Excel tool somewhere in the ribbon itself, you could simply choose Customize Ribbon at step 2. (You cannot do this in Word 2007, as there is no such choice in that version of the program.)
If, instead of opening Excel, you want to insert an Excel worksheet into your current document, you can add the proper tool by following a variation on the foregoing steps:
Figure 2. The Word Options dialog box.
When you use this tool, Word embeds a blank worksheet at the insertion point and you can then enter information into that worksheet.
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