Copy data from one Excel spreadsheet to another

[Guest]

In Spreadsheet Y, I want to include data from cells A1..C3 in spreadsheet X,
which will be updated if X changes.

In Excel 2000, this was easy: open both spreadsheets, go into Y!A1, type "="
then flip to X, click in A1 - now I've got the external reference. Go back to
Y, edit A1 to remove the $ signs (so the field address varies when copied),
copy this field to A1..C3, and hey presto, it all works.

I've tried this in Excel2003 and as soon as I edit the external address, it
thinks it's a text string rather than a formula, and won't return a value.
How can I do this (simply please - no programming), preferably in a way that
will work if I save the spreadsheet back to Excel 2000?

Thanks
Gary

 

[Ryan Jones]

If you highlight the area in excel worksheet x then go to worksheet Y and
right click and choose paste special and at the bottom there is an option
called paste link.

Then it will automatically update when the other changes

Hope this helps
Ryan

 

[Guest]

Thanks, that's helpful for the specific case.
However, I've often wanted to perform an operation on the data at the same
time. I suppose I'll just have to get a straight copy across (perhaps to a
background worksheet in the same book) and then perform the manipulation as a
second step.

It just seems odd to me that MS would take away functionality that was
working perfectly well - yet the programme doesn't get any smaller (or
cheaper)!

Thanks anyway,

Gary