Features

Everything on the Links tab in Word. For step-by-step instructions, see the Guide.

The Best Link Manager Links tab on the Word ribbon, with buttons for Insert, Update Selected, Update All, Reset, Change Workbook, Highlight, Break, Convert OLE Links, text case and date effects, picture effects, and License
The Links tab in Word (click to enlarge)

Best Link Manager vs. Word's Paste Link

Word can already link to Excel with Paste Special › Paste Link (OLE links). Best Link Manager does the same job in a way that keeps working when files move and is more stable.

Word's Paste Link Best Link Manager
Moving or copying folders Each link stores the workbook's full path, so moving, renaming or copying the folder breaks the links. Links store the workbook's location relative to the document. Move or copy the document and workbook together and the links keep working.
OneDrive Links to OneDrive files often fail to update, especially on another computer. OneDrive web addresses are converted to your synced OneDrive folder, so links to OneDrive files keep working.
Opening the document Automatic links ask whether to update from other files when the document opens. Opens like any document. Links update only when you click Update.
Seeing what's linked Links look like ordinary text or pictures. Highlight All marks every link, and double-clicking a link opens its source in Excel.

Already have documents that use Paste Link? Convert OLE Links turns them into Best Link Manager links.

What a link looks like

Every link points to an Excel named range. What you get in Word depends on its size:

  • A single cell becomes text. It shows the value exactly as Excel displays it, including currency, percentages and decimal places, unless you apply a case or date effect. It takes on your document's font and style. Line breaks inside the cell carry over, and blank cells stay blank.
  • A range of cells becomes a picture of the table, looking as it does in Excel, with its fonts, borders, shading and number formats.

All Links

Insert Select a named range in Excel, then click Insert, and the link goes in at the cursor. Without a selected named range, you pick one from a list, after choosing the workbook file if no workbook or more than one is open in Excel.
Update Selected Refreshes the selected links, or every link inside a selected paragraph or passage.
Update All Refreshes every link in the document, including headers and footers. It opens the source workbooks if needed and lists any link it couldn't update, such as one whose named range was renamed.
Reset Selected, Reset All Clears links back to placeholders: text links show their named range's name and table links are emptied. Useful for turning a finished report back into a template.
Change Workbook Points the links to one workbook at a different workbook, and warns right away if the new workbook is missing any of the range names.
Highlight All, Unhighlight All Marks every link in turquoise (a highlight on text, a border around tables), including links you insert while it's on, then removes the marking.
Break Selected Turns the selected links into ordinary text or pictures. The content stays; the connection to Excel is removed.
Convert OLE Links Turns Word's Paste Link links into Best Link Manager links, including links in headers and footers, keeping what's currently displayed.
Double-click a link Opens its workbook in Excel with the named range selected.

Text Link Effects

Put your cursor in a text link and click an effect. It's reapplied every time the link updates.

lower case all lowercase letters
UPPER CASE ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS
Title Case Capitalizes The First Letter Of Each Word
Sentence case Capitalizes the first letter of each sentence. Everything else is lowercase.
OrIgInAl CaSe Removes the case or date effect and shows the value exactly as Excel displays it. Use it to undo Long Date or Short Date too.
Long Date January 1, 2027 (for a link to a single date cell)
Short Date 1/1/2027 (for a link to a single date cell)

Picture/Table Link Effects

Select a table link and click an effect. It's reapplied every time the link updates.

OriginalFull color, as in Excel
Gray ScaleShades of gray
Black & WhiteHigh-contrast black and white
WatermarkA faded, washed-out look

License

Shows your license key and whether this computer is activated, and lets you deactivate it to move the license to another computer. Each license works on 2 computers.

Privacy, sharing and requirements

Private: Best Link Manager works entirely on your computer, between Word and Excel. It never sends your documents or spreadsheets anywhere; the only thing it sends over the internet is your license information. See the Privacy Policy.

Sharing documents: anyone can open, read and print a document that has links and will see the most recent values. They just can't update the links without Best Link Manager.

Requirements: Windows with the desktop Word and Excel apps from Microsoft 365. Workbooks must be .xlsx or .xlsm files.

Built with: Visual Basic .NET, as a Word add-in for the .NET Framework 4.8.

$49, one-time payment, for 2 computers.

Buy for $49