Microsoft KB Archive/288940

= How to check and manage the status of links in Excel 2002 or later versions of Excel =

Article ID: 288940

Article Last Modified on 5/11/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office Excel 2003
 * Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q288940





SUMMARY
This step-by-step article describes how to check the status of links and determine what actions are needed based on the status reported. The Edit Links dialog box in Microsoft Excel provides improved functionality, which allows you more control over the links in your workbooks.

Check Links
A link is a reference to another workbook. It is sometimes called an external reference. A link can also be made to another program, such as Microsoft Word 2002. This type of link is sometimes called a remote reference. Because data in another workbook or program may change, there are options to control how links are updated.

To check the status of the links in your workbook, follow these steps:  On the Edit menu, click Links.

Note The Links command is unavailable if your file does not contain linked information. Click Check Status to update the status for all links in the list.

This process may take several minutes if the workbook contains a large number of links or if the source workbook for the links is on a network location and the network connection is slow.

When the Check Status procedure is finished, the current status for all existing links is displayed in the Status column.  To further manage the links, select the link, and then take the required action as indicated in the following table:   Status               Action Required --  OK                   No action required; the link is working and up to                        date.

Unknown             Click Check Status to update the status for all links in the list.

Not applicable      The link uses Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) or Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). Excel 2002 cannot check the status of these types of                         links.

Error:              Click Change Source and select the correct Source not found    workbook. The source may have been moved or                       renamed. Error:              Click Change Source, and then select the correct Worksheet not found worksheet. The source may have been moved or                       renamed.

Warning:            Click Update Values. The link was not updated when Values not updated  the workbook was opened.

Warning:            Click Open Source and calculate the workbook by   Source not           pressing F9. The workbook may be set to manual recalculated        calculation. To set to automatic calculation, click Options on the Tools menu, select the Calculation tab, and then click Automatic.

Warning:            Some names cannot be resolved until the source Undefined or        workbook is opened. Click Open Source, switch non-rectangular name back to the destination workbook, and then click Check Status. If this does not resolve the issue, make sure the name is not misspelled or missing. Switch to the source workbook, point to Name on the Insert menu, click Define, and then look for the name.

Warning:            Click Open Source. The link cannot be updated until Open source to      the source is open. update values

Source is open      The source is open. No action required unless worksheet errors are present.

Values updated      No action required; the values have been updated. from filename

Warning:            Excel cannot determine the status of the link. Status indeterminate The source may contain no worksheets or be saved in an unsupported file format. Click Update Values. 

