Relatively Linking Word 2019 to Excel

Question

Good morning,

In a folder, I created a Word 2019 file that pulls data from an Excel 2019 file.

I copied this folder into each client’s directory.

The links were created in Word using the “Paste Special/Link/Formatted Text” rather than “Excel Worksheet” option, depending on the situation.

Problem: The Word files in each client’s folders are all pointing to the original Excel file, not to the Excel file within the same folder.

How can I change the absolute links to relative links?

The Word file may contain over 100 links.

Office version: Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019

Operating system: 64-bit Windows 11 Pro

(Up until a few years ago, everything worked automatically without issues.)

Thank you,

Mariangela

Answer 1

Links to other Office programs use OLE (Object Linking and Embedding). OLE links are always absolute, never relative.

To relink to the spreadsheet in the same folder, choose File>Info>Edit Links to Files. Select a link and choose Change Source. Then select the spreadsheet in the same folder as the Word file.

Long ago (20-25 years, approximately), it was possible to edit link field text directly in the Word document, and temporary relative fields could be created. But that process was just as tedious and repetitive and considerably more error-prone than the current routine.