'Portable' workbook and dependent workbooks

I'd like to make a workbook and its linked-to workbooks portable i.e., independent of what hard drive etc. they occupy . . .

All the workbooks will be in one folder. But I'd like to be able to vary that folder -- I'd like to be able to copy it to a USB drive, for example, and open the 'parent' workbook and have it look in the right place for referred-to cells. The right place in this case would be in workbook(s) that are in the folder on the USB drive where the parent workbook is located.

What I'm encountering is Excel's inability to refer to linked-to workbooks when they are not in the subdirectory that they were in when originally made.

Any/all help is much appreciated!

Have you tried EDIT > LINKS.

Ed

No, haven't tried that but I will.

The other potential lead is that under File > Properties > Summary, there is a place for "Hyperlink Base". Help on this blank yields "Type the base address that is used for the path for all relative hyperlinks inserted within the current document . . . This can be a path to a folder on your hard drive."

Question: what does a 'relative hyperlink' for a folder look like?? I know what an absolute hyperlink for a folder looks like i.e. "C:\JoesStuff\ExcelStuff"

Hyperlinks are for jumps, not for datalinks.

Try the edit links suggeastion and if that does not work, post back.

Ed

Ed, thank you for your posts.

Edit > Links works as you have suggested. You can readily change all links to a different spreadsheet. But if for example you have a spreadsheet that is dependent on *two* (or more) spreadsheets (such as in my case), I don't know how you could change things appropriately -- the Edit > Links thing changes all the links, which would be incorrect.

I'm afraid the answer is going to be pretty complex. I was hoping that there was a way that one could simply have Excel look in a given subdirectory for the spreadsheets, but it doesn't appear that that can be done.

If I'm mistaken on the above, I'm certainly interested in further suggestions. Thanks again!

Chief Wiggums,

The edit links window should give you the links to different workbooks if they exist and each should be changeable independently

The attached link is to an add-in which can search out links in your workbook.

http://www.dom-and-lis.co.uk/

I haven't tried it but once installed, go to Ultimate > Formulae > Linked Formulae Tools. It should show you where the link is located and enable you to edit them.

Another alternative would be to search the forums using appropriate keywords to see if this has occurred before.

Ed