Strange Links Probelms

Can anyone explain why what I see happening, described below, is occurring.

I have a weekly report submitted to me by Email. The structure of each these
weekly submission is identical as it made from a template file. The users
insert links into the template which brings in figures. I do not have access
to these linked files. When I open the Emailed version I choose not to
update links and the data is fine and correct, and I see the link paths in
the cells.

The problem which requires explanation - If I open up last weeks Emailed
version of the file at the same time as this weeks, rather than reading last
week's data, this week's is present. If I open up the last week's file
alone, the data is again last week's???????

I know a solution is to get the data 'hard coded' removing the links, I
understand this but I am trying to understand why the linked data is
behaving as it is. Why should it changed depending on whether I have another
version of the same file open? I can confirm that data which has to be
entered manually is not effected, last week's data stays as last week's data
even when the 'linked' entries are incorrectly quoted.

Any assistance helping me understand this strange occurrence would be
greatly appreciated.



Paul Smith

Paul W Smith wrote:
The problem which requires explanation - If I open up last weeks Emailed
version of the file at the same time as this weeks, rather than reading last
week's data, this week's is present. If I open up the last week's file
alone, the data is again last week's???????


I believe Excel notices that both files are linked to the same cells but are
showing different data. It knows that can't be right and so changes one of
them (maybe to the version more recently saved).

Bill Manville
MVP - Microsoft Excel, Oxford, England
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