Linking spreadsheets

Hi,
This post was added to our 'Improve the forum suggestions' thread.
I have moved it to our Excel thread.
Apologies for the delay.
Regards, Rich

Hi Nicky,

Apologies for the delay in replying to this post, it seems to have got missed in our system.

It sounds like your team members are encountering a common limitation when linking Excel files stored on Microsoft Teams (or SharePoint/OneDrive generally) using traditional external links. When you link cells directly between workbooks (e.g., using a formula like `='[AnotherWorkbook.xlsx]Sheet1'!A1`), Excel typically requires the source workbook to be open to refresh the data, especially if the link refers to a specific cell or range.

Here are a few strategies and explanations for why they might be experiencing this, and how to potentially overcome it:

**Why They Are Experiencing This (and Why Opening is Needed for Direct Cell Links):**

* **Direct Cell/Range Links:** When you create a formula like `='[AnotherWorkbook.xlsx]Sheet1'!A1`, Excel needs to access that specific cell's content. If the file isn't open, Excel can't "see" the live value. It often stores the *last known value* but won't update until the source is opened.
* **Teams/SharePoint/OneDrive Integration:** While these platforms make sharing easy, they don't inherently change how Excel's linking mechanism works at a fundamental level. The files are still individual Excel workbooks.

**Solutions to Pull Data Without Opening All Spreadsheets:**

1. **Power Query (Get & Transform Data) - Recommended!**
This is by far the most robust and recommended solution for this scenario. Power Query is built into Excel (Data tab > Get & Transform Data group).

* **How it Works:** Power Query can connect to external data sources, including Excel files stored on SharePoint/Teams (which is essentially SharePoint). It pulls the data into your current workbook as a table. The beauty is that it performs the "opening" and "reading" of the source file *in the background* when you refresh the query, without needing to visually open the source workbook.
* **Steps (General Idea):**
1. In the destination spreadsheet, go to `Data > Get Data > From File > From Workbook`.
2. Navigate to the Excel file on your Teams/SharePoint site. You'll likely need to paste the SharePoint/Teams file path.
3. Select the sheet or table you want to pull data from.
4. Transform the data if needed (e.g., choose specific columns, filter).
5. Load the data as a table into your current worksheet.
6. **To refresh:** Right-click the loaded table and select "Refresh," or go to `Data > Refresh All`. Power Query will go out, read the source file (even if closed), and update your data.
* **Benefits:**
* No need to open source files.
* More robust and less prone to broken links than traditional external links.
* Can handle larger datasets efficiently.
* Allows for data transformation and cleaning.
* Can combine data from multiple files/sheets.

2. **OneDrive Sync Client (Less Ideal for Shared Workflows, but an Option):**
If the files are synced locally via the OneDrive sync client, Excel might sometimes be able to refresh links without opening, *if* the local sync is up-to-date and the file isn't actively locked by another user. However, this is less reliable for a shared team environment where multiple people are editing files simultaneously, as it can lead to version conflicts. Power Query is generally preferred for team collaboration.

3. **VBA (Macros) - More Complex, Often Overkill:**
You could write VBA code to open the source workbook silently (e.g., `Workbooks.Open "FilePath", UpdateLinks:=False, ReadOnly:=True`), copy the data, and then close it. However, this requires macro security to be enabled and is significantly more complex than Power Query for this specific task.

**Recommendation:**

**Strongly advise your team to learn and implement Power Query.** It's a fundamental skill for anyone working with data in Excel, especially in collaborative environments like Teams. There are many excellent tutorials available online (e.g., YouTube, Microsoft Learn) that specifically cover connecting Power Query to files on SharePoint/Teams.

By shifting to Power Query, they will overcome the "all spreadsheets must be open" hurdle and gain a much more powerful and flexible way to manage data dependencies.