problem with linked excel worksheet object in word changing to object and then link not updating

Anonymous
2022-08-10T04:02:31+00:00

I have used linked excel tables or worksheet object in word documents for years without any issues until yesterday 8/8/22.

Out of nowhere the "Linked Worksheet Object", or the excel table that I linked into word (paste special > paste link > microsoft excel worksheet object), changed to an "object" after the word doc was saved, closed and opened again.

Before yesterday, I could right-click on the linked table, or "Linked Worksheet Object", and select "Update Link" and any changes I made to the table in the linked excel file would appear in the word doc. Now, I right-click on what is now an "object" and select "Update Link" and nothing happens. Strangely, if I right-click on the linked table, select "object", then "Links...", and then "Open Source", the "object" reverts back to a "Linked Worksheet Object" and updates as usual.

But after saving, closing, and opening the word document again the "Linked Worksheet Object" changes back to an "object" again and I have to take the same steps to update a linked table in word after changes made to it in excel.

This is happening in the Word and Excel provided by the Microsoft 365 Personal subscription. I am using a Dell Latitude 3500 and Surface Pro 7 under this subscription but am only having this issue when using the Dell Latitude 3500. I have checked all the Options in Word & Excel and they are the same on both computers. I have also checked the Registry Editor and everything related to Word & Excel looks to be the same on both.

What is going on? Better yet, how do I fix this and get back to normal?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-03-28T14:34:11+00:00

    As of the latest release this issue has gotten even worse. This needs to be fixed asap.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-01-30T07:10:58+00:00

    I am up against the same issue with linked objects converting to links that don't function on re-open. I was able to action one suggestion in this forum as a work-around to this obvious bug. I put all the links correctly into my file with the Copy Paste Special, Paste Link as usual & I did this in my .docx file. I then saved a copy of this file as .doc The benefit of this is that the .doc file maintains the healthy link on close and re-open. When I re-open the .docx file (each time) I will batch paste the healthy links from the .doc file. This has been much faster than double clicking links or re pasting links each time as I have 10+ links in a file. This is an obvious hack, but I can't roll back to a previous version. Hopefully a bug fix for this is coming soon.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-08-16T17:44:33+00:00

    We tried this, and while it appears to fix the link problem, having to revert to the old binary Word version and its lack of formatting options seems like we are trading one problem for another.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-08-15T18:44:02+00:00

    I am having the same problem. All of my linked graphs have lost their connection to Excel files and show up as Object now. I have many tables and graphs linked to documents (more than 40) and I have had to delete and re-link all of those. But after I close and reopen the links are all busted again. This has screwed my whole day. Updating this weekly report went from a 10 minute job to a 3 hour job. Something must have gotten messed up in the last update from MS. I've been using this file for 7 years with no trouble. Stop pushing updates without better testing! I am on Version 2207 as well.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-08-11T20:50:50+00:00

    This does not fix it. Please see my original post where I explained how I inserted this table that way but after saving, closing, and opening the file it changes to an "object".

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