External References

Create External Reference    |   Update External Reference    |   Alert

An external reference is a reference to a cell or range of cells in another workbook. Below you can find three source workbooks and a summary workbook that contains two external references.

When creating external references, it's good practice to refer to defined names in other workbooks. Therefore we've created named ranges in each source workbook.

Create External Reference

To create an external reference, execute the following steps.

1. In the summary workbook, select cell B2 and type the equal sign, =

2. On the View tab, click Switch Windows and then click sales.

3. In the sales workbook, select cell B2.

4. Type the plus sign, +

5. Repeat step 2, 3 and 4 for the production and the logistics workbook.

Result:

Update External Reference

Close all workbooks. Change the costs in one or more source workbooks and close all source workbooks again. Open the summary workbook.

1a. Click Enable Content to update all links.
1b. Click the X. Next, on the Data tab, in the Connections group, click Edit links to update some of the links...

...the Edit Links dialog box appears. Select a workbook and click on Update Values to update the link to this workbook. Note how the Status changes to OK.

Alert

If you don't want to display the alert and update the links automatically, execute the following steps.

1. Click Startup Prompt...

2. Select 'Don't display the alert and update links' and click OK.

This turns off the Alert for the summary workbook. There is an Excel option to turn off the Alert for all workbooks.

3. On the File tab, click Options, Advanced and uncheck 'Ask to update automatic links' (not recommended).

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