Hi,

We are using Excel 2003, have tried both versions (pre SP1 and with SP1)
We have an Excel spreadsheet that contains links to multiple files, and
enter data in a cell, for example a cell may have the formula

='H:\Expenses2004\Apr04\[file1Apr04.xls]1020'!$M46

The spreadsheet contains links to about fifty different spreadsheets, and
approximately 10000 links. Each link contains a three letter code for the
month, i.e. Apr or Jul etc.

With Excel 97 we used to be able to do a find and replace on the
spreadsheet, searching for Apr and replacing with Jul for example. This used
to perform pretty quickly.

With Excel 2003 we are finding this taking a very long time and consuming
high network resources, basically, for each of the 10000 links, it is finding
Apr and changing to Jul so we get
='H:\Expenses2004\Jul04\[file1Jul04.xls]1020'!$M46

it is also updating the values in the cell, so essentially it gets to cell
1, changes the link, opens the referenced file, reads the referenced value
and closes the file. It then goes to cell 2, changes the link, opens the
file (quite often the same file as the previous one), reads the referenced
value and once again closes the file.

Is there a way to streamline this process, whether it be,
1. It changes the referenced link but doesn't read it for the requested
value until specified (only really worthwhile with option 2)
2. Whether it opens the referenced file once and updates all values that
reference that file
3. We have found that opening all of the source spreadsheets speeds up the
process, as you would expect because it is loaded in memory (or in temp
location) and not having to open, read, close the networked copy. This isn't
acceptable as this means opening about 50 source spreadsheets all located in
different folders.

Does anyone have any ideas?

TIA