Maintaining Destination Formatting on a Linked Excel Table

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 17, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365

Kat has an Excel table in her Word document, pasted as "linked with destination formatting." She wants to control the formatting and borders within Word. If she sets the formatting of the borders and later uses F9 to update the linked data in the table, the borders revert to a simple grid. These borders do not match the borders drawn in Excel or the borders that Kat set in Word. She wonders if there is a way to make Word maintain the borders as she formatted them whenever she updates the data.

The behavior that Kat describes seems to be the way that Word works when you update linked Excel data. If you manually format the linked data, all your formatting is stripped when you update the data.

There is one way around the problem—use table styles. From testing, these do not seem to be removed during the update. You can find these styles by placing the insertion point inside the linked data (in your Word document) and then displaying the Table Design tab of the ribbon. You can use one of the pre-defined table styles, or you can create your own. (Right-click in the existing styles and choose New Table Style from the resulting Context menu.)

Once you've applied the table style (or created a new one and applied that), you can update your table and the formatting should remain as specified in the style.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13815) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365.

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

AutoFilling with Weekdays

Need to fill a range of cells with the days of the week? Excel makes it easy to do so using AutoFill.

Discover More

Printing Only Non-Blank Worksheets

If you have a workbook containing many worksheets, you might want to print only those worksheets that have some sort of ...

Discover More

Problems Pasting Large Pictures

If you insert a large picture in your document and your text jumps all around and the picture seems to disappear, don't ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Converting a PDF File to a Word Document

PDF files seem to be everywhere; they are a standard way of exchanging documents with others. At some point you may want ...

Discover More

Embedding an Excel Chart in a Word Document

Word and Excel usually work pretty well together. This means that you can easily paste charts from Excel into your Word ...

Discover More

Unlinking an Excel Chart Automatically

When Excel charts are linked in a Word document, they update every time the document is opened. Here's how to unlink the ...

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 eight less than 8?

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.