Microsoft Office

Linking and Consolidating Worksheets 27
Changing the startup prompt
When you open a workbook that contains one or more external reference formulas, Excel, by default,
retrieves the current values from the source workbooks and calculates the formulas. However, you can
change this behavior by using the Startup Prompt dialog box (see Figure 27.4).
To display the Startup Prompt dialog box, choose Office ➪ Prepare ➪ Edit Links To Files, which displays
the Edit Links dialog box. Then, in the Edit Links dialog box, click the Startup Prompt button. Select the
option that describes how you want to handle the links.
FIGURE 27.4
Use the Startup Prompt dialog box to specify how Excel handles links when the workbook is opened.
Updating links
If you want to ensure that your link formulas have the latest values from their source workbooks, you can
force an update. For example, say that you just discovered that someone made changes to the source workbook
and saved the latest version to your network server. In such a case, you may want to update the links
to display the current data.
To update linked formulas with their current value, open the Edit Links dialog box (choose Office ➪
Prepare ➪ Edit Links To Files), choose the appropriate source workbook in the list, and then click the
Update Values button. Excel updates the link formulas with the latest version of the source workbook.
Excel always sets worksheet links to the Automatic Update option in the Edit Links dialog box,
and you can’t change them to Manual, which means that Excel updates the links only when
you open the workbook. Excel doesn’t automatically update links when the source file changes (unless the
source workbook is open).
NOTE
Changing the link source
In some cases, you may need to change the source workbook for your external references. For example, you
may have a worksheet that has links to a file named Preliminary Budget, but you later receive a finalized
version named Final Budget.
You can change the link source using the Edit Links dialog box. Select the source workbook that you want
to change and click the Change Source button. Excel displays its Change Source dialog box, which enables
you to select a new source file. After you select the file, all external reference formulas are updated.
Severing links
If you have external references in a workbook and then decide that you no longer need the links, you can
convert the external reference formulas to values, thereby severing the links. To do so, access the Edit Links
dialog box, select the linked file in the list, and click Break Link. Be sure to verify your intentions because
you can’t undo this operation.
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