Select a range of Excel data and copy it to the clipboard. Switch to Prism, move the insertion point to the cell of a data table that will become the upper-left corner of the pasted data.

Pasting Excel data

Then click on the Paste or Paste Special button in the Prism Clipboard toolbar.

If you use the Paste button or the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+V), you will only paste the values that have been copied to the clipboard. If you choose Paste Special , you have several options about how you want to insert your data into Prism's data table. These options are only available with Windows. If you use a Mac, skip to this page.

•Paste Data -- Prism retains no link back to the Excel spreadsheet. The values will be pasted and nothing else. The only advantage to using this method is that it is conceptually simpler.

•Paste Embed -- You paste the selected data into the data table and also paste a copy of the entire spreadsheet file into your Prism project, even if it has several worksheets (tabs). This means you don’t need to worry about keeping track of multiple files. You don't need to save the spreadsheet file separately (except as a backup). You can open Excel from within Prism, edit the data, and instantly update the analyses and graphs in Prism. A potential disadvantage of embedding is that you will end up with multiple copies of the same data. Another disadvantage is that your Prism files will be larger.

•Paste Link -- Paste the values into the data table but also create a link back to the Excel file. The link has two functions. It lets you trace (and document) the source of the data so you stay organized. It also is a live link. If you edit or replace the data within Excel, Prism will update the analyses and graphs. The Paste Link command is available only if you paste from an Excel workbook that has a name. If you are working with a new Excel file, you must first save it (thus giving it a name) before you can link its data into Prism. When in doubt, use Paste Link.

•Paste Data Transposed -- Converts data in Excel rows into columns in Prism, and vice versa.

•Paste Embed Transposed -- Converts data in Excel rows into columns in Prism, and vice versa. You can choose to paste data only, and embeds a copy of the Excel sheet in Prism.

•Paste Link Transposed -- Converts data in Excel rows into columns in Prism, and vice versa. Retains a link to the original Excel sheet

•Paste Special -- Opens dialog to let you choose whether to embed or link to the original file (Windows only), and also choose to filter and rearrange the data as you paste it into Prism. The Paste Special dialog is identical to the Import dialog.

Pasting an Excel table as a picture

You can copy a portion of an Excel spreadsheet and paste (or paste link) it onto a Prism graph or layout. This pastes a picture only, and Prism cannot analyze or graph the values since the values are not in any Prism data tables.

Importing Excel files

There are some limitations, and we don't recommend it, but you can import Excel files directly into Prism for Windows.