How do I make linked Word and Excel documents portable? - excel

Question

We have some Report template documents in Word that are linked to template excel documents with various OLE linked objects from Excel to Word.
Since OLE uses absolute paths vs. relative, copy pasting the two documents to another location (or even moving them) breaks the OLE links.
So, what's the best way to facilitate moving the documents to another location AND moving the Word template and being able to link it to another Excel document in the new location?
I've searched through numerous sites and found some solutions for technical people:
http://www.msofficeforums.com/word/38722-word-fields-relative-paths-external-files.html
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/making-excel-links-in-word-portable-ie-relative/8f67c68e-6406-4ef2-9b97-4d96c43dcb2c,
BUT this needs to be easy enough for non-technical people to use.
I would like to be able to copy and paste BOTH documents (the Word template AND the linked Excel template) to a new location and have them work the same way they did in the original location.
I would also like to be able to copy just the Word template to a new location and link it to an Excel template in that new location.

Answer 1

I ended up writing a solution to a problem that I had a difficult time finding an answer for, so I wanted to share what ended up working for me.
The code looks in the working directory of the word document, finds the first excel document (I only have 1 excel file per folder in my job, so this setup works for me), and changes the source of all OLE objects in the word document to match the excel document, which makes it possible to create a word/excel template pair and move them to different locations.
*NOTE: I've used Windows sepecific objects/functions for I/O, i.e. MyFile, MyFSO, MyFolder... etc., but I don't think it would be terribly difficult to make the I/O platform agnostic.
**NOTE: I also haven't really added any error checking as it's a quick and dirty macro that's used internally to facilitate portability AND I've never used vba before, so garbage cleanup etc. was a just kind of thrown in there, if there's a way to refactor everything and clean it up, please let me know.
Sub UpdateWordLinks()
Dim newFilePath As Variant
Dim excelDocs As Variant
Dim range As Word.range
Dim shape As shape
Dim section As Word.section
excelDocs = GetFileNamesbyExt(ThisDocument.Path, ".xlsx")
'The new file path as a string (the text to replace with)'
newFilePath = ThisDocument.Path & Application.PathSeparator & excelDocs(1)
Call updateFields(ThisDocument.fields, newFilePath)
For Each section In ThisDocument.Sections
Call updateHeaderFooterLinks(section.headers, newFilePath)
Call updateHeaderFooterLinks(section.Footers, newFilePath)
Next
'Update the links
ThisDocument.fields.Update
Set newFilePath = Nothing
Set excelDocs(1) = Nothing
Set excelDocs = Nothing
Set range = Nothing
Set shape = Nothing
Set section = Nothing
End Sub
Function GetFileNamesbyExt(ByVal FolderPath As String, FileExt As String) As Variant
Dim Result As Variant
Dim i As Integer
Dim MyFile As Object
Dim MyFSO As Object
Dim MyFolder As Object
Dim MyFiles As Object
Set MyFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set MyFolder = MyFSO.GetFolder(FolderPath)
Set MyFiles = MyFolder.Files
ReDim Result(1 To MyFiles.count)
i = 1
For Each MyFile In MyFiles
If InStr(1, MyFile.Name, FileExt) <> 0 Then
Result(i) = MyFile.Name
i = i + 1
End If
Next MyFile
ReDim Preserve Result(1 To i - 1)
GetFileNamesbyExt = Result
Set MyFile = Nothing
Set MyFSO = Nothing
Set MyFolder = Nothing
Set MyFiles = Nothing
End Function
Function updateHeaderFooterLinks(headersFooters As headersFooters, newFilePath As Variant)
Dim headerFooter As Word.headerFooter
For Each headerFooter In headersFooters
Call updateFields(headerFooter.range.fields, newFilePath)
Next
Set headerFooter = Nothing
End Function
Function updateFields(fields As fields, newFilePath As Variant)
Dim field As field
Dim oldFilePath As Variant
For Each field In fields
If field.Type = wdFieldLink Then
oldFilePath = field.LinkFormat.SourceFullName
field.Code.Text = Replace(field.Code.Text, _
Replace(oldFilePath, "\", "\\"), _
Replace(newFilePath, "\", "\\"))
End If
Next
Set field = Nothing
Set oldFilePath = Nothing
End Function
It works for me by allowing me to copy paste either both a word and excel file together to a new location and run the macro, or by allowing me to copy paste the word document only and run the macro to link it to an excel doc in the new location.
**I should also note that I only needed to look in the body and header/footer stories for the links we use, so this code is not as robust as it could be, but I don' think it would be too tough to add another loop or two to cover off any missing stories
Cheers!

Answer 2

If you are still looking for a way to create portable links between Excel and Word, our Excel-to-Word Document Automation Add-in may help. Unlike native linking through Office you can: rename files, copy/paste and reorganize content, share the linked files, etc. The same Excel document can update multiple destination Word and/or PowerPoint report templates. You only need to set up the links once and they can be updated numerous times. I hope this helps, you can find out more at https://analysisplace.com/Document-Automation