WD2000: Updating Link Removes Formatting from Microsoft Excel Table

• Microsoft Word 2000

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Word, if you insert a link to a Microsoft Excel worksheet as Formatted Text (RTF) and then apply formatting (such as bold or italic formatting) to the linked table, the formatting may be lost when the link is updated.

CAUSE

Updating the link causes the original worksheet formatting to overwrite the formatting you applied to the table in Word, and your direct formatting is lost.

NOTE: The "\* MERGEFORMAT" switch does not preserve the formatting of the linked Excel table.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, add the "\* CHARFORMAT" switch to the field, and apply the direct formatting to the field. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In Word, display field codes by pressing ALT+F9. You should see something like this:




{LINK Excel.Sheet.8 "C:\\My Documents\\myfile.xls" "Sheet2!R7C1:R15C5" \a \r \* MERGEFORMAT}

2. Add the "\* CHARFORMAT" switch to the field so that it looks like this:




{LINK Excel.Sheet.8 "C:\\My Documents\\myfile.xls" "Sheet2!R7C1:R15C5" \a \r \* CHARFORMAT \* MERGEFORMAT }

3. Select the field and apply the direct formatting you want.



4. Update the field. To do this, click in the field and then press F9.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbinterop kbdta wd2000
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug