Embedding Word Templates in Excel

[jwright8]

I'm trying to embed a word template into an excel document. The Word template has fill in prompts but for some reason once the template is embedded you no longer get the fill in prompts when opening the file from Excel. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[#2]

@jwright8 

Could I ask you to back up and describe what it is you're trying to accomplish by embedding a Word template in an Excel file? It may be that there's a different route to the same goal. A different route altogether.

For example--without knowing what your "business" purpose is (recognizing it may have nothing to do with business per se)....i.e., what the big picture is....--might it be that using a dataset in Excel as a source document, then Word's Mail Merge function could be used, with Excel serving as the source for the responses to those prompts in the Word template.  

[#3]

It sounds like the Word template might utilize macros on fields and/or dropdowns and when opened from Excel the macros don't run?

[#4]

@mathetes So the Excel document is an efficiency tool I've loaded with templates for my teeam to easily one click to open.  Word template I'm trying to embed is something that my team frequently uses. The fill in pop-ups are to prompt them to enter required information so they are less likely to forward an incomplete document.  

[#5]

That's correct,

[#6]

@jwright8 

So the Excel document is an efficiency tool I've loaded with templates for my teeam to easily one click to open.  Word template I'm trying to embed is something that my team frequently uses. The fill in pop-ups are to prompt them to enter required information so they are less likely to forward an incomplete document.  

That goes part way to answering my question, but doesn't address the heart of it: WHY are you embedding the Word template in the Excel file? What's the purpose of that combination? The purpose of the combination itself.

It sounds as if they're both working separately; so why embed the one in the other?

[#7]

Because I was hoping that my reps can open one tool they can open that has all of their templates they use throughout the day, strictly for efficiency.

[#8]

@jwright8 

Because I was hoping that my reps can open one tool they can open that has all of their templates they use throughout the day, strictly for efficiency.

OK, that makes sense. But since it doesn't work (or hasn't worked so far) to embed the one within the other, the challenge remains: to create a single tool that your reps can use to enter whatever data they need throughout the day.

Without knowing the nature of the data being collected--the input-- or the specific output expected, it's hard to suggest a specific route to take. I'd wonder, though, about seeking to design a single Excel workbook, or a single Word template, or a single Access (Microsoft's relational database software) application to take care of all the input.

To what extent does your Excel component actually take advantage of Excel's computing abilities? To what extent are you using Excel primarily for the clarity that rows and columns bring to disparate data, perhaps further enhanced by Data Validation? Or is Excel being used to perform calculations, lookups, etc? 

If we were meeting face-to-face, those are examples of questions I'd want to explore in the early stages of designing a solution. Others here in the forum will, I'm confident, have other ideas.

[#9]

A workaround might be to hyperlink to the Word template instead of embedding it.

[#10]

Yea I tried that but for some reason the "fill-in" prompts don't pop up when opening the templates from a SharePoint site either.