These days PowerPoint presentations are one of the most popular and trustworthy ways of conveying information to large groups of people. They’re created for business meetings, university lectures, investment pitches and so much more.
But when it comes to making a PowerPoint presentation, sometimes you need to be conveying information better presented in Microsoft Excel.
That means you’ll need to know a technique few PowerPoint creators know – how to insert an Excel file into PowerPoint. If you do need to do this, don’t panic.
The experts here at Offdrive have written this quick and detailed guide to lead you through the process. We’ll outline how to import an entire spreadsheet below, as well as certain sections of Excel data. That way, you can focus on making your PowerPoint presentations the very best they can be!
How to Insert an Excel File Into PowerPoint for a Whole Spreadsheet
Let’s begin with what is likely the most common way in which you’ll need to insert Excel data into PowerPoint; inserting an entire spreadsheet.
This is done when you need to include a whole Excel file into your PowerPoint presentation. This could be to show intricate facts and figures for financial projections, or the conclusions of research data. If you need some tips on how to create this Excel information, to begin with, take a look here.
No matter the purpose, the formula for inserting this information will remain the same. First things first, you need to your PowerPoint presentation open. We will be providing these instructions for the newest version of PowerPoint, which means if you are working on older software the process may be different.
Once open, you need to navigate to the Insert tab, then select the Object button.
This should open a dialog box for you. In this box, you need to select the “Create from file” button. You’ll then need to browse in this section to find your Excel document wherever it is saved on your computer.
Before you continue, make sure that you tick the “Link” box. That’s all there is to it.
One very important thing to note is that this method will only link the active worksheet in this Excel document, which is usually at the top. If you have a document with several tables or data sheets contained in it, you’ll need to make sure the right one is active before you link it to PowerPoint.
Inserting a Section of Excel Data to PowerPoint
Sometimes you might not want to link an entire worksheet to your PowerPoint. For those occasions, you’ll need to learn how to insert a section of Excel data into your PowerPoint presentation.
This time start in Excel and open the relevant file that contains the data you wish to link to PowerPoint. You’ll then need to drag over all of the information you’re intending to insert. Make sure you select each cell and don’t leave any left out.
Then, you’ll need to be on the ‘Home’ tab, and you’ll need to select ‘Copy’. A quicker way of doing this for people on time constraints is to use the Ctrl C command through your keyboard. Using commands like these can make several aspects of computing quicker, from these insertions to inserting writing from your own blog.
Then, you need to open PowerPoint and navigate to the relevant slide where you want to display this information. Open the ‘Home’ tab within your PowerPoint presentation and then navigate to the ‘Paste’ button but don’t select it.
Instead, you need to click the arrow beneath the ‘Paste’ button and select ‘Paste Special’. This will open a unique dialog box.
On this box, you will need to select the ‘Paste Link’ button on the left-hand side of the box. To the right, it should say ‘As…’ with a selection of options beneath. You’ll need to select ‘As Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object’.
Your data should now be properly inputted onto your PowerPoint presentation!
Inserting Unlinked Excel Data to PowerPoint
Finally, we’re going to quickly go through inserting unlinked Excel data to PowerPoint. This means that if you make any changes to your Excel data, these changes won’t be reflected in your PowerPoint presentation.
Because of this, you should only use this option if your Excel data is complete and won’t be changed in the future.
You need to follow the same instructions as the above section until you get to the ‘Paste Options’ section. Here you’ll have several different options, such as ‘Embed’, ‘Picture’, or ‘Keep Text Only’.
This is where you can choose how your Excel data is inserted in your PowerPoint presentation, and the preference is up to you. If you go with ‘Keep Text Only’ bear in mind that the layout of your cells will potentially change.
To keep it looking the same as it was when copied from Excel, it is usually best to go with a ‘Picture’. But note that you cannot modify any of the text if your Excel data is pasted as a picture.
Try out several of the options to see which works best for your particular PowerPoint presentation.
What If I Need Further Assistance With Excel and PowerPoint?
Now you’ve solved the problem of how to insert an Excel file into PowerPoint. These three guidelines should provide the right option for you if you ever need to insert Excel data into your PowerPoint presentation in the future.
But we know that many of you will likely require further assistance when it comes to operating Microsoft Excel or Microsoft PowerPoint. If you do have further questions, we’d encourage you to take a look through some of the previous blog posts on our website.
For example, take a look through our post on some essential PowerPoint presentation tips. If you need to convert any of your files in the future, make sure to visit our homepage here at Offdrive for quick and hassle-free file conversions.