I have found my own solution to the problem. the details below actually refer
to an earlier version of Excel and it would appear that this problem has been
in existence for about 10 years - permenant fix would be good:

Jim Rech View profile
(1 user) More options 7 Apr 2004, 17:48

Newsgroups: microsoft.public.excel.programming
From: "Jim Rech"
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2004 13:47:26 -0400
Local: Wed 7 Apr 2004 17:47
Subject: Excel recalculates formulas when opening files last saved by an
earlier version of Excel
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You get this particular message only when you open a workbook that was
already fully calced (as far as the earlier version of Excel was concerned)
but Excel 2000 calced it anyway just because it was from an earlier version.

To stop this you need to make a registry entry (Start-Run "Regedit" (no
quotes)).


Under:


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Ex cel\Options


create a new DWORD item named: FullCalcOnLoadOldFile


Leave its value at the default of 0.

Thanks Jim Rech - excellent fix - works for Excel 2007 too.

andy Clark

"Andy Clark" wrote:

I have a lot of Excel 2003 spreadsheets that I cannot change from a
thirdparty. When I opened them in Excel 2003 as was able to not update the
links and show the previous data.
No matter what combination of settings I put in to Excel 2007 it is not
showing me the previous data just #Name where the link would be.
can anyone give me a pointer as to what I can do to resolve this.
I get the security warning and reply Enable content
I then get an alert abouts links that can't be updated - I reply continue
and that is it.
I have no option to Display Previous data as I did in Excel 2003

Many thanks