PowerPoint: Edit the Excel link without problems

Microsoft Office 2021 or Microsoft 365 contains a lot of practical services that make everyday office life, but also communication and organisation in the private sphere, much easier. Editing texts with Word, creating calculations with Excel or designing presentations with PowerPoint … Some features also make it possible to link the individual programmes with each other. For example, an Excel table can be inserted effortlessly into Word – and just as easily into Microsoft PowerPoint. Here we show how to edit such an Excel link.

Often it is not possible to edit an Excel link because ..

… when inserting an Excel table into Microsoft PowerPoint, the link was not considered in one of the first steps or was executed incorrectly. A link also does not react to changes if the Excel workbook in which the Microsoft Excel table is originally located has been renamed at some point. Another source of error is when the Excel workbook has been moved to another directory within Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Office 2021. In both cases, Microsoft PowerPoint can no longer access the original Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. It simply no longer exists for the programme and it is not possible to update it. Now there is only one thing that helps: Edit the Excel link so that PowerPoint automatically adopts changes to the original Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

Inserting an Excel table and editing the Excel link

If you want to insert an Excel table into a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, you should select the function „Insert link“ from the outset. The Excel workbook then automatically takes over the data.

How to insert the Excel table into the PowerPoint slide

Anyone who works a lot with Word and Excel has certainly already successfully mastered the option „Insert Excel table into Word“. In the PowerPoint programme, the procedure for inserting an Excel table is very similar.

  • Open the corresponding presentation in Excel PowerPoint.
  • Then open the Excel workbook with the table to be inserted.
  • Select the table.
  • Click the „Start“ tab and navigate to the „Copy“ button.
  • Now click on the appropriate place on the Excel PowerPoint slide to be able to paste the Excel table there. Open the „Start“ tab and select „Paste“ under „Clipboard“.

Edit Excel link

The above steps can be used to insert the Excel spreadsheet into Microsoft PowerPoint and it is then linked so that changes are automatically applied. However, if the Excel workbook was later renamed or moved, the Excel link must be edited.

  • Logically, the PowerPoint presentation whose link is faulty is opened first.
  • The „Backstage View“ can be opened via the „File“ tab.
  • In the menu that appears, click on „Information“.
  • The active PowerPoint slide appears, with various selection options below it.
  • Under „Related documents“ click on „Edit links with files“.
  • In the „Links“ dialogue window, the command „Change source“ can now be clicked.
  • Another dialogue window „Change source“ opens and a list appears with several documents available for selection.
  • The correct document must now be selected and the command „Open“ must be given by clicking on it.
  • Back in the „Links“ dialogue window, click on „Update now“.
  • If the updated link works, the „Close“ command is outlined in blue and can be clicked.

Now you can continue working on the Microsoft PowerPoint slide. After the presentation has been closed and reopened once, the programme has automatically applied the changes or updates to the Excel spreadsheet.

This is also possible: Create an Excel spreadsheet directly in PowerPoint

Sometimes it is not necessary to first create a table in Excel and then integrate it into a PowerPoint presentation – you can create it directly on a slide.

  • Click on the slide in the thumbnail view on which an Excel table is to be created.
  • Select the „Insert“ tab and click on the small arrow under „Tables“.
  • click on „Insert Excel table“ in the drop-down menu.
  • A table appears on the PowerPoint slide, which can be edited as usual with the Excel ribbon.

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