Printing Excel Reports via a Word Document
Using Microsoft Excel & Word
This post will detail the process of establishing a simple database in excel and then linking that to a Standard Report in word and saving the data as a new Word file.
Why use Word?
Some organisations will only accept files in Word format and may have specific formats which are used internationally (International shipping I’m looking at you!)
In these cases although you may be able to setup an Excel file to look exactly like its Word equivalent. But if they wont accept it…
You have to change.
Requirements:
+ A database source in Excel
+ A Word file (to be used as a template, not to be confused with a Word template)
The Process
The process is simply a matter of:
+ Setup a Control sheet
+ Setup a Transfer Sheet
+ Setup a Word template
+ Run the Report
This process will be explained step by step with the help of a worked example: 2007/10 Sample or 1997/03 Sample
This tutorial will only be using the 2007/10 files as examples but feel free to follow along if you are using previous versions.
The 2007/10 Sample has been tested on both Office 2007 & 2010
The 1997/03 Sample has been tested on Office XP (and I make no claim that it will work in prior versions but it might/should)
Open the example workbook (Production records.xlsm from the above links) or your own data file.
Notice that there are 3 worksheets in the workbook:
+ Control: The master sheet which allows selection of your filter or summation criteria and a button to execute a macro
+ Transfer: The transfer sheet, the entry or summation here will be transferred to word
+ Data: The database
Setup a Control Sheet
The control sheet is a simple data validation or selection tool and a button which will run a macro.
It can be as simple or as complex as you need to make it.
Example
In the example above there is simply a Data Validation cell which is linked to a list of shipment numbers and a Button to run the reports VBA subroutine.
You can make yours as simple or as complex as you need to extract the data from your data source.
The Produce Word Report button is linked to the MergeMe VBA subroutine.
Setup a Transfer Sheet
The Transfer sheet requires 2 rows
Row 1: Has a list of field names, These will be used in Word later so use something meaningful.
Row 2: Has a list of the records which will be transferred to Word. The cells will contain sufficient formulas to extract the relevant records from the Data sheet using the Data validation on the Control Sheet.
You need to setup sufficient fields to ensure that all records required in Word are setup or retrieved.
The order of the fields isn’t important as the field names are used for the transfer not the order.
Also you don’t have to use all the fields in Word, but if the Field isn’t made here you can’t retrieve it later.
The format or layout doesn’t matter as this is controlled in Word.
Example
Notice on the Transfer sheet that the Top Row is a list of field names
The second row uses an Index(Match( )) combination to retrieve the relevant records from the Data sheet.
Save the Excel file.
In the sample file I have made a simple retrieval of a matching records and associated fields, but the Transfer sheet could have just as easily sumarised multiple rows of data from your data source.
Setup a Word template
Setup in word a file which will be used as a template for the import.
Leave gaps where your fields values will go.
Save the file
Example
Open the example file (Shipping Template.docx)
If this is the first time you have opened the example file it may prompt you
“Opening this file will run the following SQL File …”
This is ok so accept Yes
You can either accept that and then follow the links to connect the file to the Production records.xlsm file
It will then prompt you for the Data Table which in our case is Transfer$ ie: the Sheet Name with a $ sign at the end
If it didn’t prompt you above or you answered No to the “Opening this file will run the following SQL File …” prompt we will connect again later anyway.
Now setup the file in word with all the text graphics, lines colors etc required for your form/report.
Leave gaps for the fields which we will add next.
Adding fields
Use mail merge to open the data source (Production records.xlsm)
Goto Mailings, Select Recipients, Use Existing List…
Navigate to the Production Records.xlsm file after which it will prompt you for the table which in our case is Transfer$ ie: the Sheet Name with a $ sign at the end (as discussed above)
Move to the 4 missing Field Locations as per the following table and insert the Field Names using the
Mailings, Insert Merge Field tab
Insert Fields as per the following table and highlights above:
| Location | Field Name (from Production Records.xlsm) |
| Shipment No : | Shipment_No |
| Material : | Cargo |
| Tonnes : | Tonnes |
The other fields Destination, Form and Date have already been pre-entered and are shown in Blue
You can format the fields as required, select the entire field and change the font, colors etc to suit.
You can view the field values using the Preview Results Button, see below
Make any other changes to the file
Save the file as a Word File Shipping Template.docx (not as a Word Template *.dotx)
Close Word
Run the Report
In the Production records.xlsm file we will now link the macro to the button on the control sheet
We need to check 3 lines in the macro before we execute it.
Goto VBA using Alt F11
Select the Production Records.xlsm, Modules on the left and find the
Sub MergeMe() Subroutine on the right
Near the top of the subroutine are 2 lines which list both the file which Word will use as a template and what the new file will be saved as after merging.
‘ Setup filenames
Const WTempName = “Shipping Template.docx“ ‘This is the Word Templates name, Change as req’d
Const NewFileName = “New Certificate.docx” ‘This is the New Word Documents File Name, Change as req’d
Change these values as appropriate
The code will overwrite the existing output file if it exists so once executes save it to another name/location.
If you are using your own data file copy this subroutine to your own VBA Module and edit as above.
You can now go back to Excel (Alt F11) and execute the macro using the button on the control page.
You should now have a new file called New Certificate.docx in the same directory as the Sample files.
Future Extensions
The above macro which does this transfer is a simple and easily scalable to 50+ fields without any modification.
Future enhancements would be:
+ Sourcing the New Word File name from the Control sheet
+ Incremental numbering of the word document each time the transfer is done
+ Numbering of the word document based on a Field value each time the transfer is done
+ Export of Multiple records at one time
+ Conditional formatting in Word based on field values
+ Improved error checking
If you are interested I encourage you to modify and post these enhancements here for all to benefit.
Macro
You can copy the Macro into any Excel file and save it as an *.xlsm file and link it to a Button and be up and running in minutes
The macro has a very small number of changes that need making internally to work anywhere.
What have been your Excel to Word transfer experiences ?
What have been your Excel to Word transfer experiences, let us know in the comments below:
What do you think of this approach to data transfer ?
37 Responses to “Quickly Change Formulas Using Find / Replace”
Chandoo,
this is a really cool stuff what I use quite often. In addtion this method also could be a good choice to switch the reference type of the formulas from relative to absolute or vice versa. (just simply replace the $ in the same way).
Andras
@Andras: you are right, we can use find / replace to change references, reference types etc. Now, only if they had regex in find/ replace, we could so much more 🙂
@Tony Rose: Thank you. This is very useful and powerful feature. I even use it for cleaning up data. While formulas are good, they are not the solution for every problem. Often when I need more powerful cleanup / changing, I copy paste the stuff to text editors like notepad++ and then use their find/replace to do the dirty task.
What if i have to change the formula from ='Analysis'!C1 to 'Analysis 1'!C1?
I tried doing it using Find /Replace but could't. Encountered some errors.
And is there a way to change this using VBA???
Hi,
Did you ever get a reply to this?
Thanks
Ollie
to make your life easier, suggest you to avoid (Space) in worksheet names whenever possible. Consider (underscore) instead.
As the first formula wouldn't have the single apostrophes (since there's no space) need to include that in replace. So, search for:
Analysis
and replace with:
'Analysis 1'
This could be the most useful tips I've seen in a while. I use this all the time and can instantly change 400 formulas with a few clicks. Like so many other functions in Excel, I don't know what I would do without this one.
Keep 'em coming!
[...] on formulas: 5 areas where mouse kicks keyboard’s butt | Edit formulas in bulk using Find / Replace | Excel Formulas Online [...]
THANKS BRO
You, sir, are a god among men...
This is really cool. Your just save me hours of work. Thanks.
Thanks so much for this fix! It saved me tons of work. I'm muddling my way through and this really helped!
Oh... My... God!
This tip just saved me about 2 hours every month! I can't believe how easy it is to use. Now, can somebody tell me who I should call to get a refund for the previous 100 hours I spent manually changing formulas cell by cell?
Thanks so much!
THANK YOU!!!
THANK YOU!!!!
You saved me hours, I had a sheet that has more than 500 formulas, and i needed to replace the year in all of them, you saved me hours
Awesome info on replacing cell addresses in formulas. I have never heard about Ctrl+` before. Thank you!
I have something inside a formula like:
=sum(A1, A2*10) all over I now need to get rid of the *10 {=sume(A1, A2)} I thought to use the find replace trick above but with a blank in the replace but it then outputs just zeros. I thought I could trick it by doing *1 but then it just turns into =*1) with none of my references. Does anyone have an idea how to do this?
The Ctrl+ trick is cool.
@T
Instead of replacing with a blank try replacing
*10)
with
)
Thank you! This literally will save me hours and hours of time, and that's without losing my sanity in the process!
I have Sheet(1), Sheet(2), Sheet(3), etc ... Sheet(100).
Then there's a summary tab where I want to recap information on all those different sheets. Is there anyway to create a formula on the Summary tab to get ='Sheet(1)'!B$29 copied down for all 100 sheets without having to change each sheet # within the formula by hand?
@Brigitte
If you have a list of the sheet names in A2:A100
In B2: =INDIRECT("'"&A2&"'!$B$29")
Copy down
or if you don't have a list of the sheets names you can make it up on the fly
=INDIRECT("'sheet("&ROW()-1&")'!$B$29")
Copy down
Thanks for the suggestion. However, I copied your formula right back to my file and it didn't work. So I did it another way. I put the tab/cell reference in one cell and then did an =INDIRECT() to capture that information.
K2="'Sheet("&L2&")'!B$29" which has a value of 'Sheet(1)'!B$29
B2=INDIRECT(K2) which now has a value of 40 (contents on Sheet(1).
Thank you!!!!
Thank you ..
Hi, Out of all the formulae, I wish to replace the formula which has generated 0 value with blank space? I am unable to do it with find and replace function,
Please suggest.
Thanks.
Chandoo, you literally just saved me about 2 hours of work. I had a document with a daily report in two formats. The second formate just linked to all the appropriate cells in the other format (different sheets). This was 180 references that needed to be changed and I had to make this for a 4 week period (aka 28 different sheets at 180 references to change per sheet).
Thanks so much.
I have tried this way and without using the Ctrl-` formula view
Either way, I am trying to do something simple, but it won't let me.
I have a bunch of cells with a simple math formula like
=-(0.5*20)
various values in each cell, multiplied by 20
I simply want to change the multiplier globally from 20 to 25. But when I tell it to find *20 and replace it with *25, it replaces the entire cell contents with *25, rather than just replacing the *20 portion of the cell contents.
Can anyone assist with this? Seems so simple, but Excel isn't letting me do it.
Search/Replace 20 or 20) with a cell Reference eg A1 or A1)
Then put the value 25 in A1
By using a * in the search it replaces all the text
how to find a specific cell's value in a column & replace replace it with another cell value i actually need a method to replace a data in ca column and replace with the value i have in a specific cell can i give a [ location ] of data to what i need to find and then give row or column range to where i need to find and the given value & then give a [ location ] of data to what i want to be replace with the find and replace by row & column range & than by specific criteria and than by specific location.
please help.
how to find a specific cell’s value in a column & replace replace it with another cell's value.
i actually need a method to find a specific cell's data in a column and replace it with the value i have in a specific cell.
can i give a [ location ] of data to what i need to find and then give row or column range from where i need to find the given value & then give a [ location ] of data to what i want to be replace with.
find and replace by row & column range & than by specific criteria and than by specific location.
please help.
how to find a specific cell’s value in a column & replace it with another cell’s value.
i actually need a method to find a specific cell’s data in a column and replace it with the value i have in a specific cell.
can i give a [ location ] of data to what i need to find and then give row or column range from where i need to find the given value & then give a [ location ] of data to what i want to be replace with.
"find and replace by row & column range & than by specific criteria and than by specific location."
in more than 100 sheets in entire workbook
please help.
This is a great tool, does anyone knows an easiest way??
I'm working with a system that has over 59000 references... so every time the replace all is activated. I lose an entire day.
i actually needs to find cell number "D12" in column "D" and replace with Cell Number "B8" for example
find what = Cell Number "D12" John McNamara
find Where = in Column "D"
Replace with = Cell Number "B8" Bieber D'Souza
Replace Range = Column "D"
In which Sheet = All Sheets in Work Book (more than 100 Sheets)
Note: in every Sheet Cells Number "D12" & "B8" containing Different Employ Name but the find rang and replace rang are same in every sheet and find what cell number and replace with cell number are same also.
please help!
thank you. saved lot of time.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Hi, I am trying to figure out how to use RE to find and replace several values in a column. Using find and replace does not work because of the values I am working with. I have a column with hundreds of rows that have a description of several operating systems and other info, which looks like this: Windows Server 2008 R2 Member Server Security Technical Implementation Guide; Windows 2008 Member Server Security Technical Implementation Guide; Solaris 10 10 SPARC SECURITY TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE; and Windows Windows 2003 Member Server Security Technical Implementation Guide.
I need to be able to find and replace (or basically curtail the descriptions) to be Windows 2008 R2; Windows 2008; Windows 2003; and Solaris 10. BUT when I run find and replace with just *2008*, it finds every instance, including the ones with R2 at the end. I need it to only change the ones with 2008 to Windows 2008 and the ones that have 2008 R2 to Windows 2008 R2. I know it is possible, but I have no clue on how to write a macro to do this.
Thanks for your help,
Gerard
Wickedly efficient workaround. Excel really is a powerhouse program, all you have to do is dig into it. Ctl ~ exposes the formulas, and Ctl H allows for the multi edit. Brilliant, Chandoo!