Let us explore a few interesting options which would help you greatly while copying content from Excel, PowerPoint, or content from any other sources to a Word document

Copying content from Excel to Word

Left-click and then drag the mouse pointer to select the content in the Excel worksheet. Right-click and select Copy (or simply press Ctrl+C) from the right-click menu. Content is copied to the Clipboard. See below.

Copying content from PowerPoint to Word

You can copy a complete slide by right clicking the slide from the slide thumbnails on the left hand side pane, and select Copy from the right-click menu. The slide is copied to the clipboard.

You can also copy text boxes, graphics, charts, etc. from within a PowerPoint slide and then paste in Word. You can copy and paste multiple objects at a time. To select multiple objects at the same time, press the CTRL button and click the objects one by one. Right-click and select Copy from the menu. See below.

Pasting content in Word

In the Word document, click at the point of insertion of the copied content and then right click.  Select Paste (Ctrl+V) from the right-click menu.

At the end of the pasted content, you can view the Paste Options icon.

Click this icon to view the following paste options:

1)     Keep Source Formatting: With this option, Word formats the copied content according to the source (Worksheet/PowerPoint) style

2)     Match destination table style: Word formats the copied content according to the formatting style of the destination document.

3)     Paste as picture: Word creates a picture of the copied content. You cannot edit the content in picture format. But, an image is always easy to move from one place to another within the document.

4)     Keep text only: With this option, Word strips the content off any source formatting style, images, etc. and keeps only pure text. If you are copying from an Excel sheet, each cell content is separated from the other by a tab space and each row of record becomes a new line in the Word document. This option does not appear when you copy objects from a PowerPoint slide.

Following two are the most important options while copying content from Excel Worksheet:

5)     Keep source formatting and link to Excel: Word formats the content according to the worksheet formatting style and establishes a link with the worksheet. Thus, if the copied content in the Excel worksheet is updated the same will be reflected in the Word document.

6)     Keep destination formatting and link to Excel: Word formats the content according to the current formatting style of the document and creates a link as explained above.

Word also provides additional paste options in the form of Paste Special. The additional paste options are: paste content as Formatted Text (RTF), Unformatted Text, Picture (Windows Metafile), Bitmap, Picture (Enhanced Metafile), HTML text, and Unformatted Unicode Text.

To use Paste Special, copy the content from the source Worksheet to clipboard. In the Word document, from Ribbon, under the Home tab, within the group Clipboard, click Paste. In the drop-down, you find the following three options:

1. Paste (already discussed in the article)
2. Paste Special
3. Paste as Hyperlink

Click Paste Special. The Paste Special dialog box appears. By default, Paste option button is selected and you can paste content in the following formats:

1. Microsoft Office Worksheet Object

This enables you create an object of the source application. By clicking the object, you can open the content in Excel to view or edit content.

1. Formatted Text (RTF)
2. Unformatted Text
3. Picture (Windows Metafile)
4. Bitmap
5. Picture (Enhanced Metafile)
6. HTML text
7. Unformatted Unicode Text

If you are copying content from a PowerPoint, Paste special will show the following paste formats:

1. Microsoft Office PowerPoint Slide Object

This enables you create an object of the source application. By clicking the object, you can open the content in PowerPoint to view or edit content.

Important: This above option appears only when you are copying a complete slide instead of individual objects in a slide.

1. Picture (Windows Metafile)
2. Bitmap
3. Picture (Enhanced Metafile)
4. Picture (GIF)
5. Picture (PNG)
6. Picture (JPEG)

Paste as Link

In the Paste Special dialog box, select the option button Paste Link. Using this option, you can use all the above paste formats and create hyperlinks to the source of the content.

If you select the Display as icon check box, Word creates an icon of the object. You can click the icon to open the source application of the content to view/edit content.