Concept: Linking Data from Worksheets Workbooks

We will retire Slides on October 16, 2026 and will not be providing a replacement. To preserve existing Slides presentations, you can use the Download options in the Slides UI (File > Download) to download the slides as static PDFs or PPTs.

You can integrate data from Worksheets workbooks, including live data added from Workday advanced, matrix, and composite reports, into Slides presentations. To link data, create defined names or pivot tables in Worksheets workbooks and then insert those data items into Slides presentations.

Defined Names and Pivot Tables

Within Worksheets, workbook owners and editors create defined names by selecting individual cells or a range of cells, and then selecting

Data

Define Name

. To view all defined names for a workbook, select

View

Panels

Defined Names

to open the

Defined Names

panel. After a defined name has been created, it can be edited in Worksheets.

Workbook owners and editors create pivot tables by selecting a range of cells, and then selecting

Insert

Pivot Table

. Pivot tables created in workbooks are automatically assigned a name with 'Pivot' and a number (such as Pivot1, Pivot2, Pivot3, etc.), but the pivot table name can be changed in Worksheets.

Inserting Linked Data

You must have edit access to a Slides presentation and edit access to a Worksheets workbook to insert linked data in a presentation. The defined names and pivot tables created in a workbook display in Slides when you link data.

You can link data as tables, charts, and individual text values. From a presentation, click one of the linked data options, navigate to a workbook, and then select a defined name or pivot table to link to that data. A presentation can have links to as many as 500 unique data items and 20 different Worksheets workbooks.

	Actions	Limits	Additional Details
Values (Text)	Click Insert > Text . Click Insert > Linked Value . Navigate to a workbook and select a data item from the list. Select a value from the data and click Insert .	1MB (1048576 characters excluding linked values embedded in text)	Linked values display with a blue background. You can click the Show Linked Value Indicator from the View menu or the Linked Data panel to hide the blue background for linked values on all slides and make it easier to view text formatting.
Tables	Click Insert > Table . Navigate to a workbook, select a data item, and click Insert .	Maximum of 1,000 cells	The default is a table with linked data from a workbook. You can also insert an empty table and then manually add text or insert linked values in the cells.
Charts	Click Insert > Linked Chart . Navigate to a workbook, select a data item, and click Choose Chart Type . Select a chart type and click Insert Chart .	Maximum of 5,000 cells	You can change the chart type in the chart editor panel. Slides doesn't support linked charts with data containing both numbers and percentages.

Viewing Linked Data

You can view all linked data in the presentation by clicking

View

Linked Data

to open the

Linked Data

panel. When you select a data item from the panel, an orange border displays around each tile and slide containing that linked data.

If you have view or edit access to a workbook, you can click the link in the workbook name to open the workbook and view the source of the linked data. If the name of a workbook is missing, you don’t have access to that workbook, either because the workbook is not shared with you, or the workbook is in the

Trash

in Drive.

Refreshing Linked Data

Refreshing the linked data in a presentation keeps content up to date when changes occur in workbook data. You must have edit access to a Slides presentation and view or edit access to a Worksheets workbook to refresh linked data in a presentation.

To refresh all linked data, click

File

Refresh Linked Data

(or

Refresh All

in the

Linked Data

panel) to check for changes in linked workbook data and update it throughout the presentation. An orange data change indicator (two arrows) displays next to the data items in the

Linked Data

panel when data has been refreshed and updated in the presentation. When you select a data item from the panel, an orange border displays around each tile and slide that contains that linked data.

To refresh data for a specific workbook data source or item, hover over the item in the

Linked Data

panel and click the gray

Refresh

icon. To revert changes that occurred during the preceding data refresh, click

Revert Last Refresh

If you insert a defined name or pivot table from Worksheets into Slides and then later the name changes in Worksheets, you need to refresh the linked data in the presentation to see the updated name in the

Linked Data

panel. If a linked value is missing in the presentation, it might be because a defined name was edited, and you may need to replace it by linking to a new or different defined name.

When you insert a linked table from Worksheets, table formatting is copied to the table in Slides. When linked data is refreshed in Slides, format changes made to the Worksheets table are not updated in Slides, unless the size of the table in Worksheets has changed.

Data that you export from People Analytics can’t be refreshed from Slides. To update the presentation with the most current data, export the data from People Analytics again. You can click the link in the

Linked Data

panel to return to the People Analytics dashboard, even though the original data may have changed since it was exported.