1. Locate the Excel file and the worksheet or range that has the data you want to link to. If you don't want to link to the entire worksheet, consider defining a named range that includes only the cells you want to link to.

   To create a named range in Excel:

   • Switch to Excel and display the worksheet in which you want to define a named range.
   • Select the range of cells that contain the data you want to link to.
   • Right-click within the selected range and click Name a Range or Define Name.
   • In the New Name dialog box, specify a name for the range in the Name box and then click OK.

   Note that you can link to only one worksheet or range at a time during a link operation.

2. Review the source data, and take action as described in the following table:

   Element	Description
   Tabular format	Ensure that the cells are in tabular format. If the range includes merged cells, the contents of the cell are placed in the field that corresponds to the leftmost column and the other fields are left blank.
   Skipping columns and rows	You cannot skip source columns and rows during the linking operation. However, you can hide fields and filter records by opening the linked table in Datasheet view after you have linked them to FlexMail.
   Number of columns	The number of source columns cannot exceed 512, because FlexMail does not support more than 512 fields in a table.
   Blank columns, rows, and cells	Delete all unnecessary blank columns and blank rows in the Excel worksheet or range. If there are blank cells, try to add the missing data.
   Data type	You cannot change the data type or size of the fields in the linked table. Before you start the linking operation, you must verify that each column contains data of a specific type. We highly recommend that you format a column if it includes values of different data types. For example, the FlightNo column in a worksheet might contain numeric and text values, such as 871, AA90, and 171. To avoid missing or incorrect values, do the following: Right-click the column and then click Format Cells. On the Number tab, under Category, select a format. Click OK.
   First row	If the first row in the worksheet or named range contains the names of the columns, you can specify that FlexMail should treat the data in the first row as field names during the link operation. If there are no column names in the worksheet, or if a specific column name violates the field naming rules in FlexMail, FlexMail assigns a valid name to each corresponding field.

   
   

3. Close the source file, if it is open.

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1. On the Datasources tab, in the Link External Data group, click Excel.

2. In the Link Data dialog box, in the File name box, specify the name of the Excel source file.

3. Click Open.

4. in the Link Spreadsheet window, specify the following settings:

   • Select a worksheet or a named range in the Range of cells in the spreadsheet list.

   • If you want to update the data, select Open in updatable mode. This is generally not recommended. When opening an Excel file in updatable mode, you will loose all Excel formatting information. Also, when Excel columns contain cells with mixed information (e.g. text and numeric) you might loose data.

   • If the first row of the source worksheet or range contains the field names, select First row contains column headings. FlexMail uses these column headings to name the fields in the datasheet. If a column name includes certain special characters, FlexMail will replace these with an underscore.

5. Click Finish.

FlexMail tries to link to the worksheet. Review the fields and data to ensure that you see the correct data in all the fields.

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