How to Link Excel to PowerPoint? 3 Easy Ways

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(Note: This tutorial on how to link Excel to PowerPoint is suitable for PowerPoint 2013 and later versions including Office 365)

One of the most distinguishing features of Microsoft applications is their ability to support cross-platform functionalities. This means that you can import data from one platform to another and update them when the data in the original platform changes.

In addition to the above, Excel usually deals with large amounts of data. You will sometimes need to showcase these data in the form of PowerPoint presentations. When you create slides in PowerPoint, you will have to link the Excel sheet to PowerPoint slides for easy referral.

In this article, I will tell you how to link Excel to PowerPoint in 3 easy ways.

You’ll Learn:

• 3 Different Ways to Link Excel to PowerPoint?
  • Link an Entire Sheet
  • Link a Section of the Excel Sheet
  • Using Paste Special Option and Linking the Data
• Advantages of Linking Excel to PowerPoint

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3 Different Ways to Link Excel to PowerPoint?

Link an Entire Sheet

When presenting, you will sometimes need to provide a reference to a worksheet in Excel. In such cases, you can link an entire worksheet and open them whenever necessary.

Before we see how to link Excel to PowerPoint, make sure you have saved the Excel workbook from which you have selected the data.

• To link an entire sheet, first, open PowerPoint and navigate to the slide you want to link the sheet.

• Navigate to Insert. Under the Text section, click on Object.

• This opens the Insert Object dialog box. In the dialog box, select the Create from file option.

• Click on Browse. This opens the Browse dialog box. You can now search for the workbook you want to link. Select it and click Open.

• To link the Excel sheet with PowerPoint, check the checkbox for Link and click OK.

• This inserts the Excel workbook in the form of an image. You can double-click on the image to move to the original Excel file.

When you make any changes to the original Excel file, the changes also reflect in PowerPoint.

Note: When you link an entire sheet, make sure the content you want to link is in the default sheet, which pops up when you open the Excel file.

• Usually, any changes you make to the Excel sheet will automatically be reflected in your PowerPoint slide. However, if you find that the PowerPoint slide is not updated, right-click on the content and click on Update Link.

This immediately updates the slide with the data in the linked Excel sheet.

Link a Section of the Excel Sheet

In some cases, you might not need to link the whole Excel sheet. In those cases, you can only link a section of the Excel sheet to the PowerPoint slides.

• To link a section of the worksheet, first, open the Excel file from which you want to import the data. Make sure the Excel workbook is saved before you import data.

• Now, select the data you want to link to the PowerPoint slides.

• We now have to copy the selected data. To copy the data, you can either right-click and click Copy, click on the Copy option from Home, or use the shortcut key Ctrl+C.

• Then, open PowerPoint and navigate to the slide where you want to insert the section of the Excel sheet.

• Navigate to Home. Under the Clipboard section, click on the dropdown from Paste and select Paste Special.

• This opens the Paste Special dialog box.

• Click on the Paste Link radio button. And in the As: section, select Microsoft Excel Worksheet Option.

• Click OK.

• This inserts the selected section into the PowerPoint slide.

• You can then use the anchor points to move or resize the section inserted in the PowerPoint slide.

• In case the section inserted into the slide is not updated even after changing the data in Excel, right-click on the inserted section and click on the Update Link.

Using Paste Special Option and Linking the Data

Another way to link Excel to PowerPoint is by using the Paste Special option and linking the data. This method is similar to the above-mentioned method. However, this method only inserts a section of the sheet and not the whole sheet.

• First, navigate to the Excel sheet and select the content you want to insert.

• Once you have selected the data, right-click and select Copy. Or, use the keyboard shortcut key Ctrl + C.

• After copying the data, open PowerPoint and navigate to the slide you want to insert the section to.

• Now, paste the copied data into the slide. Click on the dropdown from Paste in the Home main menu. Or, you can right-click on the slide and select any of the Paste Options.

• To paste the data, you can use either of the two options:
  • Use Destination Theme & Link Data: When you use this pasting option, PowerPoint copies the data from Excel and pastes the data into the slide with the default theme of the PowerPoint slide.
  • Keep Source Formatting & Link Data: When you copy and paste data using this option, PowerPoint pastes the data onto the slide keeping the original format of the chart intact.

Remember that when you use any Paste Special Options which link Excel to PowerPoint, every change you make to the linked Excel sheet will be reflected in the PowerPoint slide.

If you want to change or edit any data, double-clicking on the slide like the above methods will not help you change the data and thereby, change the data in the slide. To change the data, right-click on the chart and select Edit Data.

Note: In some cases, you might not want the changes made to the Excel sheet reflected in the PowerPoint slides. In such cases, you can just copy and paste into the slides without linking them. Use the Paste Special options like Use Destination Theme & Embed Workbook, Keep Source Formatting, or Picture to copy the contents without linking them.

Advantages of Linking Excel to PowerPoint

Excel is one of the most popular data-handling tools. On the other hand, PowerPoint is a very effective tool for presentations. To showcase Excel charts or data onto PowerPoint slides, the most sought method is to copy and paste contents from Excel to PowerPoint. However, linking Excel files to your PowerPoint slides has some advantages of its own:

1. Linking Excel to PowerPoint makes it easy to update changes made in the Excel file onto the PowerPoint slide. This is very helpful in cases where there are numerous Excel files and you want to insert them into PowerPoint.
2. Linking Excel to PowerPoint helps in easy references. That is, you won’t have to search through and navigate between folders to open and refer to the main source file. You can do it easily with just a click of the mouse.
3. Linking eliminates the need for formatting every time you copy and paste the chart or data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Closing Thoughts

Linking data in Excel to PowerPoint provides a sure way to keep the slides up-to-date without any manual intervention.

In this article, we saw how to link Excel to PowerPoint in 3 easy ways. If you want to link the whole worksheet, use the Object method. If you want to add a section of the sheet, use the Paste Special dialog box or use the Paste Options. Choose the method that suits your purpose the best.

If you need more high-quality PowerPoint guides, please check out our free resources center.

Ready to dive deep into Excel? Simon Sez IT has been teaching Excel for over ten years. For a low, monthly fee you can get access to 140+ IT training courses. Click here for advanced courses with in-depth training modules.

Simon Calder

Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!