When you copy an object from Excel to Word any changes you make to the object in Excel are not propagated to the copy of the object in Word. When you link an object from Excel to Word any changes you make to the object in Excel are automatically propagated to the object in Word. For example, if you link a section of a spreadsheet to a Word document, anytime you make changes to the spreadsheet section you copied, the changes will automatically appear in your Word document.