There seems to be a lack of a truly functional document insertion facility in DraftSight at this time.

However, DraftSight does a reasonably good job of attaching IMAGES as reference documents and this feature can be used to advantage to help out. This makes it possible to handle spread sheet tables and data from a word processor as well as actual pictures – BUT that data can NOT be embedded in the drawing at this time.  It must be referenced from an external file.

 In Brief:
Create the external document using a suitable program other than DraftSight.
Make an image of the document, or that part of the document, that is needed.
Insert that image into the DraftSight drawing.
Each time the document is updated repeat the last two steps above.

In Detail:
The original document:
Here it is assumed that the document has already been created.
That document may be stored where ever is convenient – but see the note about hyper-linking in "Finalising" below.

Create the image:
Use any suitable screen capture program to create an image of just that part of the document that you wish to use in DraftSight (I find FASTSTONE CAPTURE very good as it can capture any part of a screen, a scrolling screen, and can also be used for creating instructional videos with sound).
PNG images are the ideal format (only my opinion!) but any of the common image formats should do. (Note too that some document editors may allow you to save the WHOLE document directly to an image format.)
The capture program may give them a default name which you can change to something more meaningful if you prefer.
Store the capture(s) in the same directory as the DraftSight drawing. This helps avoid links to the images being broken when the files are sent to a client – preferably in a zipped folder so that the client does not have to handle separate files.

Insert the image:
In your drawing, move to the area where the document is to be embedded.
Select INSERT > REFERENCE IMAGE …
Navigate the folders to find the image and select it.
In the “Attach reference image” window:

• The preview window should be showing the content of the image.
• Give the image a name by which it will be identified in the drawing.
• Under “Insertion Point” check the “Specify later” box so that you can place the image where it is needed on insertion.
• Under “Scale” decide whether to check or uncheck the “Specify later” box according to whether you want the image inserted at its original size or want to resize it on insertion.
• Under “Rotation” leave the “Specify later” box unchecked unless you need to rotate the image on insertion.
• Select OK.
• Click where you want the left bottom corner of the image and drag to set the size before clicking again to complete the insertion.
• (Remember that the UNDO button or Ctrl+Z allows you to back up if you change your mind at any point and Ctrl+Y will redo when required.)

Finalising:
Add a text caption to the image if needed.
If you need to easily get back from the drawing to the original document for updating and such like as work on the project proceeds it is useful to add a temporary hyperlink from the caption. That hyperlink is best removed before sending to the client as it will be broken when the project documents are sent to the client unless the original document is also kept in the project folder – NOT a good idea if the integrity of the original data needs to be kept within your control.

Sending to a client:
Include a final copy of the document image in the same folder as the drawing and make sure that Draftsight is directed to that copy rather than one somewhere else on your computer otherwise the link to the image will be broken and may not be able to be restored by the client if that becomes necessary.

Updating data in the image:
Change the data in the original document.
Repeat the image creation / insertion cycle to update the drawing by replacing the document image in the drawing file-set.  Provided the document image file name remains the same and the link is intact this will update the image within the drawing.

[User of DS (Free) V1R2.1 on Windows 7 Home Premium.]
12 Sep 2012, 09:57 (NZ standard time)