Referencing Data in Closed Workbooks

[Steve]

Hi -
I'm using Excel 2000, Win XP.

A colleague has a workbook which accesses data from a secondary work book.
Every so often, she has to update the data in the Main Workbook with data
from a different secondary workbook. For example, the Main workbook is
referencing data from "Workbook01.xls" this week. Next week, she wants to
reference data from "Workbook02.xls". The only change in the workbook names
is from 01 to 02. She will have about 50 workbooks throughout the year.

Rather than changing each individual reference in the Main Workbook, she
wants to be able to change just one cell from '01 to '02, and have the cells
update with data from the 02 workbook. The data in each of the secondary
workbooks is arranged similarly, so changing the workbook name will bring in
the correct data.

I could write VBA code to do this, but was wondering if this could be
accomplished using formulas and no VBA. She has numerous workbooks with
references to closed workbooks. I would not want to write VBA for each of
her workbooks.

Thanks in advance.

Steve

 

[Jeffrey W. Smith]

Steve,

If I'm understanding your issue, I believe she can click on "Edit | Links |
Change Source" and update the source file references throughout the workbook
in one go.

HTH,

Jeff

 

[Pete_UK]

One way you could do it is with Edit | Replace:

Find What: 01.xls
Replace with: 02.xls
Replace All

This would be quite easy to put in a macro if you stored the number
you changed to in a cell, so that next time you would know to change
from 02 to the next number. You could then assign the macro to a
button, so that your colleague would only have to click the button to
look at the most recent file.

Hope this helps.

Pete

 

[Steve]

Thanks Jeff. This may work well for this application as she has several
different links in the workbook. Some will be changed one day, and others
will not. She can pick and choose the file to link to, knowing that all
links to that file in the main workbook will change, and links to other
files in the main workbook will not.

 

[Steve]

Thanks Pete. If it becomes necessary to use VBA, I already have very simple
code to Edit & Replace. I am trying to avoid this, as it may require a
little support down the road.
Thanks again.