External Link Not Updated When Source Cell Moved
Article ID: 149660
Article Last Modified on 8/17/2005
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 95 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 5.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 98 for Macintosh
This article was previously published under Q149660
SYMPTOMS
If you have a formula that links to another workbook (source workbook),
your linking formula may not be updated when the source workbook is
changed.
CAUSE
Your linking formula may not update if both of the following are true:
- You insert a row or column, or you delete a row or column in the
source workbook.
-and-
- The linked workbook is not open when you make these changes to the
source workbook.
NOTE: This behavior is different from Microsoft Excel version 4.0.
RESOLUTION
To make sure your linking formulas update correctly when the source
workbook changes, do either of the following:
- Make sure the dependent workbook (with the linking formulas) is open
when you make changes to the source workbook.
-or-
- Use defined names in the source workbook and change your linking
formulas so they refer to these defined names and not cell
references.
For example, if your linking formula is currently:
Microsoft Windows
-----------------
='C:\Directory\[Source.xls]Sheet1'!$A$5
Macintosh
---------
='hd:direcory:[Source]Sheet1'!$A$5
then you would want to give cell A5 in the source workbook a defined
name. For this example, you can define cell A5 in the source
workbook as mycell. If this is done, you
would want to change your linking formula to:
Microsoft Windows
-----------------
='C:\Directory\Source.xls'!Mycell
Macintosh
---------
='hd:direcory:source'!mycell
Additional query words: 5.00c 8.00 97 98 XL98 XL97 XL7 XL5 link insert reference defined name XL
Keywords: kbprb KB149660