Excel Spreadsheet

stressedoutmumof1

A quick question (that's probably got a long answer :rotfl: )

How do I get different excel spreadsheets to "talk" to each other. For example I have 3 spreadsheets and I want 2 of them to show information on the 3rd one.

Any ideas woud be greatly appreciated

village_life

the simplest way to do it is a simple "copy/paste" between the spreadsheets.

open the first where you want to extract the info. from - highlight the cells and "copy" - then go into your 3rd workbook and "paste" in.

there are more sophisticated ways, using proper links etc - but why do it the hard way

Stompa

The form of an external reference to Excel is '<filename>'!<reference>. The <filename> is enclosed in single quotes to prevent special characters being misinterpreted as another part of a formula, while the <reference> may be a cell reference (e.g. R1C2 or $A$2) or a name which is defined in the workbook. In order to link the Capital Cost of a Resource to cell $A$2 in the spreadsheet C:\DATA\COSTS.XLS, then you would enter the formula:

'C:\DATA\COSTS.XLS'!$A$2

More generally, if a workbook contains several sheets, then the name of the sheet must also be specified, using the same syntax as is used in Excel for an inter-workbook link:

'C:\DATA[COSTS.XLS]Sheet3'!$A$2

However, this is not necessary for references to global named ranges; and these are also generally preferable, as a named range will generally remain valid when rows are inserted in, or deleted from, a worksheet.

Chippy_Minton

From the help - Create a link between cells in different workbooks:

1. Open both the workbook that will contain the link (called the destination workbook), and the workbook that contains the data you want to link to (called the source workbook).
2. In the destination workbook, click Save .
3. Select a cell or cells you want to link from.
4. If you are creating a new formula, type = (an equal sign).
If you are entering the link elsewhere in the formula, type the operator or function that you want to precede the link.
5. On the Window menu, click the name of the source workbook, and then click the worksheet that contains the cells you want to link to.
6. Select the cells you want to link to.
7. Complete the formula. When you finish entering the formula, press ENTER.

user1234_2

Chippy_Minton's advice is the best reply here...i.e. just type "=" then use the mouse to select the cell in the other spreadsheet you want.