Linked Spreadsheets in Excel 2003

[Guest]

I have 2 spreadsheets in Excel 2003. Spreadsheet A has links to data in
spreadsheet B. If spreadsheet B is closed when I open Spreadheet A, I am
asked if the links should be updated. If Spreadsheet B is open when I open
spreadheet A, I am not asked if the links should be updated.

Why am I only asked if updates should be made if the linked to spreadheet is
closed?

Thanks in advance for clearing up that which is cloudy for me.
Have a great day.

 

[David Benson]

John,

If spreadsheet B is open when spreadsheet A is opened, Excel automatically
updates the links. However, if spreadsheet B is closed, then Excel has to
open it in order to update the links (B doesn't remain open for use after
the updates are processed, but it still has to be opened). This can be a
fairly lengthy process if the spreadsheets are large, so Excel gives you the
option of not updating.


-- David

 

[Guest]

David,

Thanks for the quick response. However, I need to follow up on this. I
don't understand. If the linked to spreadsheet is already open, then why
would Excel try to open it again to perform the update? I guess the
confusion is inthe fact that if the linked to spreadsheet is already open, I
am not getting the option to update the spreadsheet that contains the links
when I open it, I only get the update option if the linked to speradsheet is
closed when I open the spreadsheet that contains the links themselves.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[David Benson]

John

When you create a link from Spreadsheet A to Spreadsheet B, Excel gets the
value of the linked cell(s) from Spreadsheet B and stores them in
Spreadsheet A. Subsequently, when Spreadsheet A is recalculated, Excel
checks to see if Spreadsheet B is still open. If it is, then Excel
refreshes the values of the linked cells that are stored in A, then proceeds
with the calculations in A that use those values. If B is not open when A
is recalculated, then Excel just uses the values from B that are stored in
A.

If you open A while B is open, Excel recognizes that B is open, and thus
knows that the linked values will be available for the next recalculation.
It therefore does not have to update the linked values from A that are
stored in B. However, if B is not open, Excel gives you the choice of
either using the copies of the linked values it keeps in A, or refreshing
them by opening B and reading the current value of the linked cells. If you
are confident that the linked cells from A have not changed since the last
time you used B - or more importantly, if A is for some reason not
availabe - you can skip the refresh step and use the values from A that are
stored in B.

Hope this helps.

-- David