Is there a reasonably simple way to link a range of cells in Excel to a
table in Word such that the word table is not messed up by adding a
line above the cell range in Excel?

If I've linked a 5 x 3 table of, say B5:F8 to word, adding a row above
the table in the Excel document will result in the Word version losing
its bottom row and picking up a new one at the top. So it will still
be linked to B5:F8 even though the data range I want to appear in my
Word document is now B6:F9.

And a slightly more complex example, what if I added rows or columns to
the table I wanted to link to in Word. If I add a new row or column to
the table in Excel, the linked table in Word keeps the same number of
rows and columns although what I'd like would be for the Word table to
pick up the extra rows or columns plus the linked data in those rows.
Conversely, sometimes I want to delete rows from the Excel range and
I'd like the Word table to shrink.

Obviously I can just delete the table from word and special paste it
back in, but I produce a lot of documents like this and it would be
much more convenient if I could just link a range of cells (possibly
specified by specially named top left and bottom right cells which
define the table I want linked to Word) so my changes in Excel get
reflected in the Word document automatically.

Thanks in advance.

Travis

I've just figured it out myself, its not hard at all.

Select the whole range in Excel and name the range "table1" or
whatever.

Select the range and Ctrl C to copy.

Back to Word, special paste and link in the usual way. Since the range
of table1 has been linked (verified in the field code, alt F9), the
table in word now picks up the extra rows you add in the middle of the
range, doesn't get shifted if you add a row above, etc.

Travis