3 Ways to Insert a PDF Document into an Excel Spreadsheet on Windows

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Updated May 20, 2024

Method 1: Insert a PDF Document in Excel Spreadsheet

Here’s how you can insert a PDF into Excel and make sure the document is visible and easily accessible on the Excel spreadsheet.

Step 1: Tap on the Insert button on the toolbar, and tap on Text. Select Object in the drop-down box.

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Step 2: Select Adobe Acrobat Document as Object type. Tap on OK.

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Step 3: The Adobe PDF reader will now open in the background. To access the window, click on the Adobe Reader’s icon on the taskbar.

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Step 4: Select the PDF you want to insert and tap on Open.

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The PDF is now inserted into your Excel spreadsheet. You can also move and resize the PDF display.

The PDF will be opened in Adobe Reader as well. As you scroll to the next page of the document in Adobe Reader, the document in Excel will also display the change in the page.

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Method 2: Embed a PDF File Link in the Excel Spreadsheet

If you do not want the large preview of the PDF document on your Excel spreadsheet, you can consider adding a link to the PDF document.

Step 1: Tap on the Insert button on the toolbar, and tap on Text. Select Object in the drop-down box.

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Step 2: Tap on Create from File and select Browse.

Step 3: Select the PDF file and tap on Insert.

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Step 4: Check the box for Link to File and tap on OK.

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Step 5: The link is now inserted in the PDF document. You can move around and resize it within the spreadsheet. To open the link, double-click on it and tap on Open.

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Method 3: Insert the PDF Document as an Icon in the Spreadsheet

With a small PDF icon, you can quickly open up the embedded file by clicking on it

Step 1: Tap on the Insert button on the toolbar, and tap on Text. Select Object in the drop-down box.

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Step 2: Tap on Create from File. Tap on Browse.

Step 3: Select the PDF document that you want to insert and click on Insert.

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Step 4: Check the box for Display as icon and tap on OK.

Note: You can also change the icon for the PDF by selecting the change icon button in the dialog box.

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Step 5: The icon for the PDF document is inserted into your spreadsheet. You can move and resize the icon by dragging it along the edges.

To open the document, double-click on the icon and then tap on Open.

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Format Inserted PDF in the Excel Spreadsheet

There are a few ways in which you can move, or resize inserted PDF objects in the Excel spreadsheet. These options work for all three ways in which you insert the PDF document.

Step 1: Right-click on the PDF object. Tap on Format Object.

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Step 2: Tap on the Properties tab. You will find three options.

Let us take a look at what each of these options does.

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Move and Size With Cells: Selecting the option ensures parts of the document are resized when the corresponding cells are resized too.

As you can observe in the image below, columns E and F have increased in width and you can see how the corresponding parts of the document have increased in width too.

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Move but don’t size with cells: Selecting this option ensures the PDF document does not have any effect while resizing the cells.

As you can observe in the image below, column F is quite narrow but there is no change in the corresponding parts of the PDF document.

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Don’t Move or Size With Cells: Selecting this option locks your PDF document in the Excel file and resizing the cells will not have any effect on it.