Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Embedding an Excel Chart in a Word Document.

Embedding an Excel Chart in a Word Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 15, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

Most of the time, Microsoft Office applications work fairly well together. For instance, Word allows you to embed a chart directly from Excel into a document. This is done in the following manner:

Select the Excel chart you wish to embed in your Word document. (Make sure you select the entire chart, and not just a portion of it.)
Press Ctrl+C to copy the chart to the Clipboard.
Switch to the Word document.
Position the insertion pointer where you want the chart placed.
Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
Click the down arrow under the Paste tool, and then choose Paste Special. Word displays the Paste Special dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Paste Special dialog box.

Select the Microsoft Excel Chart Object as the preferred method of pasting.
Make sure the Paste Link radio button is selected.
Click on OK. Word inserts the linked chart in your document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10100) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Embedding an Excel Chart in a Word Document.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Counting All Graphics

Need to know how many graphics a document contains? Getting at the true number may take a little more work than it first ...

Discover More

Moving Building Block Templates

Not all templates are created equal. Word uses two special templates for storing building blocks. If you want to move ...

Discover More

Determining If a Cell is Bold

Want to figure out if the text in a cell is bold? The best approach is to use your own user-defined function, as ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Very Slow Document Opening with Excel Links

When you link parts of your document to other sources (such as an Excel workbook), you can make opening your document ...

Discover More

Changing Many Link Locations

Word makes it easy to establish links between documents. If you need to change the locations for a lot of links at once, ...

Discover More

Embedding an Excel Worksheet

Word and Excel are both integral parts of Microsoft's Office suite of applications. As such, Word allows you to embed ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is three minus 3?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.