Expert: InDesign Pro - 2/23/2009

Question
How do I link an Excel chart/graph in Adobe InDesign CS4?

Background: I am using PageMaker 7.0 in a Windows XP environment to publish  several monthly newsletters sent in PDF format to our clients. The  newsletters contain a large number of tables and charts (several hundred) that are linked to Excel. I would like to switch from PageMaker to InDesign but I cannot figure out how to import charts into InDesign while maintaining the links to Excel. The place command works fine with tables but when trying to import a sheet with a chart I get the error message "You cannot import an empty worksheet. Select a non-empty sheet." I am sure a lot of people are trying to integrate Excel charts in InDesign so there is probably a way around this problem.

Answer
Hi Arne, thanks for the question.

Your description is very detailed and well-written, however, I'm not sure I completely understand what you're trying to do.

If you're trying to import the actually formatted graph into InDesign from Excel, I'm not aware of any way that you can do that directly with an Excel-created graph.

If you're trying to link the spreadsheets information as a table, you can do that under Preferences > Type, and under the Links section by selecting Create Links When Placing Text and Spreadsheet Files. Please note that if you update the linked spreadsheet, the table formatting will be removed unless you use Table- and Cell Styles to format it.

If you have more information, or a follow-up question, please submit and I'll try to be more helpful.

Thanks again,

Scott