How to move a table from Word to Excel and from Excel to Word

A supplier sends a price list in Word, the accountant asks for Excel, the lawyer wants the table inside a contract. Three ways to move tables and what to check afterwards.

BOMBA DESIGN editorialNovember 13, 20269 min read

Tables from a Word document moved to Excel in the BOMBA DESIGN tool — **Word to Excel tables:** every table becomes a separate sheet, numbers stay numbers.

Word is convenient for text, Excel for numbers. But documents travel between people in the form that was convenient to create, not to process. A supplier sends a price list in Word, the accountant asks for Excel, and the lawyer wants the table inside a contract.

Moving one small table is easy. The difficulties start when there are ten tables, cells hold several lines of text, and the totals somehow do not add up after the move.

Key points

One simple table is quickest to copy and paste.
If there are many tables or numbers have turned into text, it is faster to transfer the whole file.
After the move, check numbers, dates and codes with leading zeros.

ComparisonThree ways to move a table

Way	When it fits	Drawback
Copy and paste	One or two simple tables	Numbers become text, merged cells break
Insert as an object or a link	An Excel table in a Word report that updates	The file gets heavy, the link breaks when forwarded
Transfer the whole file	Many tables, long price lists and reports	The result has to be checked

How-toHow to move all tables at once: 3 steps

Upload the fileOpen the Word to Excel tables tool and upload a Word document (.docx) or an Excel workbook (.xlsx).
Check what the tool foundThe number of tables or sheets and the start of the data.
Download the resultExcel for a Word file and Word for an Excel file.

The file is processed in your browser and is not sent anywhere – important for price lists with purchase prices and documents with company details.

By handHow to copy a table from Word to Excel properly

Select the whole tableClick the cross icon at the top left corner of the table in Word.
CopyCtrl + C.
Paste into ExcelGo to the first cell and press Ctrl + V. If the formatting gets in the way, choose “Paste” → “Text only”.
Check the numbersSelect the column with amounts: if no sum appears at the bottom of the Excel window, the numbers were pasted as text.

ProblemWhy numbers do not add up after the move

The most common complaint is “the sum does not calculate in Excel”. There are several causes.

A space between thousands. In Word people write “12 500.00”. For Excel that is text: it does not understand a space inside a number, especially a non-breaking one.

The wrong decimal separator. Some regional settings use a comma for decimals and others a point. With the wrong one, Excel may read “12.50” as a date – 12 May.

Units in the cell. “150 USD” or “20 pcs” is text. Units belong in the column heading.

How to fix it. Select the column → “Data” → “Text to Columns” → “Finish”. Or use “Find and Replace”: replace the space with nothing.

The tool does this itself: amounts such as “7 900.50” are written as numbers, while codes with leading zeros and phone numbers stay as text so the zeros do not disappear.

Excel to WordHow to insert an Excel table into Word

Ordinary paste. Copy the range in Excel and paste it into Word. The table becomes an ordinary Word table: it can be edited, but the formulas disappear.

A wide table. If there are many columns, the table runs past the page margins. Landscape orientation, a smaller font or “AutoFit” → “AutoFit to Window” help.

As a picture. “Paste” → “Picture”. Handy for a report nobody will edit, but the text in such a table cannot be selected or searched.

The whole file. If the workbook has several sheets, the tool transfers each sheet as a separate table with a caption.

CheckWhat to check after the move

Merged cells. A header with merged cells gets in the way of sorting and filters in Excel. Unmerge them before working with the data.

Several lines in one cell. A line break inside a Word cell sometimes splits it into several Excel rows.

Dates. Check that “03.04.2026” is the third of April and not the fourth of March.

Totals. Compare the grand total with the original. If it matches, the table was moved correctly.

AlternativesGoogle Sheets, LibreOffice and other software

Google Docs and Sheets. A table is copied between them just as between Word and Excel: select, copy, paste. The problems with numbers are the same.

LibreOffice. The free office suite opens both .docx and .xlsx. Copying between Writer and Calc works the same way.

Finished files. The .xlsx file from the tool opens in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc; the .docx file – in Word, Google Docs and LibreOffice Writer.

TipHow to prepare a Word table so it moves cleanly

One header rowColumn names in the first row, with no merged cells.
One value per cellPrice separately, unit separately, quantity separately.
No empty rowsExcel takes an empty row in the middle of a table as the end of the data.
Numbers without lettersNot “1 200 USD” but “1200” in a “Price, USD” column.
The total in the last rowIt is easy to check after the move.

HonestlyThe tool moves the data. A good-looking price list is a separate job

The tool moves tables between Word and Excel: cell values, without colours, formulas or charts. It does not design the document.

A price list or commercial proposal that a client enjoys opening – with a logo, brand colours and a clear structure – is what we design: print and document design.

The most reliable check is the total. The column sum in Excel must match the “Total” row in the source document.