skysuite

Workbook Linking

A SkySuite-managed link system that lets you push live ranges, tables, charts, and pictures from an Excel workbook into a Word document or PowerPoint deck - and then refresh, break, locate, or highlight those links from either side.

When to use it

  • Embedding an Excel summary table into a Word document for a client report, then updating it after the model changes
  • Pasting a chart from Excel into a PowerPoint deck and refreshing it before a board meeting
  • Pulling a single calculated cell value into the middle of a paragraph in Word as live text
  • Auditing every Excel-sourced link in a Word document or PowerPoint deck and refreshing only the stale ones
  • Migrating legacy OLE-based Excel links in a Word document over to SkySuite's managed link system

How it works

  1. 1
    In Excel, select a range, picture, or chart and click Link to Word or Link to PowerPoint.
  2. 2
    SkySuite asks what link type to create (Text, Table, Picture, or Chart) - or skips the prompt for single-cell selections (always text) and you can set a default to suppress future prompts.
  3. 3
    The link is inserted at the cursor / on the active slide. Link metadata is saved as a custom XML part inside the destination document.
  4. 4
    From the destination app's SkySuite ribbon, use Link Manager to browse every link, Refresh All Links / Refresh Selected Links to update, Break All Links to flatten, or Locate Source to jump back to the source range in Excel.
  5. 5
    Highlight Links in Word toggles a yellow highlight on every SkySuite-managed range so you can see them at a glance. Convert Excel Links (Word only) migrates legacy Excel OLE objects in the document to SkySuite-managed links.

Tips & shortcuts

  • The "default link type" choice can be locked once you tick Make Default in the type picker - SkySuite remembers it going forward. Clear it from Settings → Workbook Links to start being asked again.
  • Single-cell selections always link as Text; the type picker is skipped.
  • A failed refresh leaves the link in a "Broken" state and shows up in the Link Manager with a red status badge plus a one-click Break option.
  • Linking a chart, picture, or shape uses the picture path with the chart/picture serialized as an image. For Word, charts have a dedicated path that preserves chart fidelity.
  • Refresh order is Text → Table → Picture → Chart, then by file path and sheet name within each type, so cheap text updates surface first.