Save Scraps On Your Desktop

Q. I’m preparing a report in Word. While I want to paste a portion of an Excel workbook into my document, I don’t want those who view the document to be able to change the numbers or in any way edit what I paste in.

A. I know just want you mean, and many people may miss the subtle difference between incorporating an Excel workbook into Word and pasting just a portion of it into a document. If I copy a workbook or even a portion of it into a Word document, that portion is still a live Excel application that can dynamically calculate and be manipulated. On the other hand, if you take a snapshot of the Excel workbook and copy that into the document, it’s like copying a static photo and pasting it into a document.

Here’s how to do the latter: Select the workbook range you want to copy and then hold down the Shift key while you choose Edit, Copy Picture . When the Copy Picture dialog box opens, accept the defaults and click on OK (see screenshot).

Go to the Word document where you want to paste the image and insert it (press Ctrl+V). Now your colleagues will be able to look at, but not change, it.