How to Link Data to Another Spreadsheet in Excel

By eHow Computers Editor

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If you need to use several spreadsheet files to keep your data current, try linking cells of one spreadsheet to another. This way you will not have to key the data into several spreadsheets every time you make changes to one item. You can even link a Word file to an Excel file.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Microsoft Office suite

Step1

Open the Excel program in the usual way. Select and open the 2 files you want to link (at the same time).

Step2

Select the cells you want to link in the source document. Changes you make in the source data will automatically update in the destination document.

Step3

Go to the formula bar and type the equal sign ("="). Key in the worksheet name and cell addresses you are using for the selected source file cell. An example of this is: "=[EBAY Bookkeeping.xls]Sheet1'!$C$7." What you have here is the equal sign, name of the file, name of the worksheet, and the name of the cells you are importing. The "!" references the cell address that you want to display.

Step4

Realize that this will give you the ability to link the 2 spreadsheets together through the 1 cell. See the Resources section below to pull up a document that shows you how to link data in Word to an Excel worksheet.