Problem with link between two worksheets, always wants to update?

**gilmoregirlz** · 06-27-2009, 09:46 PM

(I'm a total newbie to excel, so please forgive any wrong terms or any incorrect ways of stating things...)
I'm having a problem with what I think is the link between two worksheets (spreadsheets? I don't know the correct term).

Here's the story:
We use excel for a very basic receipt system for our small college bookstore (less than 200 students). It works fairly well, there is one worksheet with our inventory, and then another sheet that we open up that I guess is linked to the inventory. When we scan the barcode of a book onto the receipt, it pulls information from the inventory worksheet like book name, author, and price, and puts in on the receipt and totals it up.

Normally we open up the inventory worksheet, and then open up the receipt document. If we don't open the inventory worksheet first, the receipt would open with a message saying "This workbook contains links to other data sources" with the option to Update or Don't Update. That was fine, we just always opened the inventory worksheet first, and then it wouldn't ask that. However, our IT guy recently did some things to our computer (not entirely sure what), but it included deleting an xp user account and creating a new one. Anyway, now when we open our receipt, it always comes up with that message, even if we opened up the inventory worksheet first. We need for it to not ask if we want to update everytime. It's fine if it asks when the inventory isn't open, but we need it to not ask if we already have the inventory open....but I'm not sure how to get it to do this. Excel is a mystery to me....

I hope my explanation is understandable, I really don't have much of an idea what I'm talking about when it comes to Excel. Can anyone help??? I'd appreciate it SO much! The new school year is approaching, and we just have to have this fixed by then. Unfortunately the guy who originally set us up with this system is no longer living in the area, so we can't really ask him....
Thanks SO MUCH for any suggestions or help!!!!

**kellyfspringer** · 06-27-2009, 10:36 PM

Go to the Tools Menu
Choose Options
Uncheck the box that says "Ask to update automatic links"

**gilmoregirlz** · 06-29-2009, 07:25 PM

Thanks for the reply! I tried what you said, to uncheck the "Ask to update automatic links" box, and it did stop it from asking about updating....but now our "receipt" worksheet is taking a long time to load, regardless of if I have the inventory worksheet already opened or not.

It used to be that when we had the inventory worksheet opened, when we opened up the receipt worksheet it would instantly open, but now it's taking 30+ seconds to open. Do you (or anyone?) have any ideas as to why this might be?

I don't know if it makes a difference or not, but it used to only ask about updating if we opened the receipt worksheet without already having the inventory worksheet open. But now it's not asking to update at all, even in that situation....

Thanks so much!!!