the f4 key, dollar symbol

Hi all, hope someone can help, cause im going mad here!!

I'm trying to link some data in two excel workbooks. . . Simple yea! afraid not!
So i click on the cell where i want to put in my info, press the = sign and then search in the other workbook for the info i want to put in. No brian surgery here! The info comes in fine.

However when the info comes in it should read something like this

='[09-02-28 Grouped Management Accounts.xls]Balance Sheets'!AG5

the problem i have is automatically, excel is pressing the f4 key for me so the info is coming in like this.

='[09-02-28 Grouped Management Accounts.xls]Balance Sheets'!$AG$5

it means i cant drag down the formula.

Im pretty sure this shouldnt happen automatically, and Im also pretty sure i had actually done it earlier on and it was fine.

Hope im clear in my point and i really hope someone can help me fix this problem.

Thanks a mill

Steve

yea i guess so, but it is a pain in the neck as i have a lot to do, and it shouldnt happen this way so im looking to fix the problem

You guess right - That's how things are.
Some things are just not meant to be!

Found this on Excel.Tips.net

Summary: When you create references to cells in other workbooks, Excel, by default, makes the references absolute. This makes it difficult to automatically fill a range of cells with relative references based on the created reference. This tip explains how you can get around this default Excel behavior. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)

When you create a reference a cell in another Excel workbook (not another worksheet in the same workbook), Excel creates the reference in this manner:

='[Sales Master.xls]Sheet1'!$A$5
The presence of the dollar signs means that this is an absolute reference to the cell. Because of this, you cannot use any of Excel's automatic fill options, such as Fill Right (Ctrl+R) or Fill Down (Ctrl+D) or AutoFill, and get the results you expect. Instead, every cell in the filled cells will reference the exact same cell in the external workbook.

The solution to the problem is to make a quick modification to the referencing formula before you do the fill. If you remove the dollar signs (both of them), then the formula is now relative, and filling will work the way you expect.

I also noticed that microsofts own help indicates that the formula is generated w/o absolute reference this appears to be misleading.

Steve, I had the same problem and I could not find a solution either - I rerally don't think that there is one!