Hi There,
I concurrently update an excel document (budget) and explanatory note that accompanies the budget in a word document (both documents are attached here). Currently, I first finalize the excel budget which details a budget line description, unit cost, and total amount per line, and then I manually update the word documents that explain/narrates what each budget line in the excel document is meant.
I thought there should be an automated process such that the excel document can be linked to the word document and when I update the excel budget, certain figures in the word document such as the total amount per line can automatically update themselves without the very manual processes I am currently doing of updating the amounts in the word document manually.
Kindly advise if there is a possibility to link the excel and word documents together and a change from the excel can auto-update the figures in the word document (highlighted in green).
Since Power Query automates so many processes, I wonder if I can use PQ for such an automation process but any other alternative is also welcome and I can try.
Attachments:
1. Excel Budget
2. Narrative/Justification of the budget in word document
Best,
Mohamed
Hi Mohamed,
If you insert these descriptions in the Excel cell Comments/Notes, you can print them (to PDF) by selecting the setting in the Page Set up dialog box* > Sheet > 'At end of sheet'. You can then choose to only print the last pages so you only get the notes in the PDF.
*To open the page set up dialog box, go to the Page Layout tab and click the tiny arrow in the bottom right of the Page Setup group in the ribbon.
I hope that helps.
Mynda
Hi Mynda,
Thanks so much for your quick turnaround, as usual. I have tried the thread comments in Excel, I foresee 2 challenges in using this option;
1. The threaded comment is not automatically reflecting the changes made in the excel data. Once I update the data in any cell of the excel, I also want the amounts included in the descriptions of the word/thread comments to update themselves automatically. For example, the amount in cell H4 i.e. $26,400 is related to the amount of $26,400 in the first table of the word document and the inclusion of a thread comment or anything else should automatically always update the figures in the description document.
May be I am missing something here but I don't see a direct interaction between the budget figures in excel and the thread comments (Can some parts of the thread comments be formulated so that it reads numbers from excel?)
2. The sample files I attached are just an example to show you my intentions, however, both excel data and word text are so detailed and the word descriptions may reach up to 90 pages which may make the process bit complicated.
I would appreciate if you can further clarify this or else provide any other alternatives you may suggest.
Thanks,
Mohamed
My bad, Mohamad. I misread your question...it was early!
You can copy cells in Excel and then go to Word and right-click > paste as link. By default the links are set to automatic update, although they won't update as quickly as an Excel formula does.
You can use FORMULATEXT in Excel to show the formula, which can then be copied to Word for the instances where you need the formula information.
Alternatively, you can put all this information in Excel and then print to PDF the line items and descritpions that you currently have in the Word document.
Hope that helps.
Dear Mynda,
Thank you so much for your support and clarification on this matter. Yes, both of these options worked for me and I will use them moving forward.
Much appreciated.
Best,
Mohamed
