thanks very much for the hints! the find and replace feature did it for me! it's still not ideal but it saves a lot of work!

i was applying that to a range of formulas btw.

otherwhise is there no standard feature in excel 2010 that would save you from find-replacing the references to the file where the formulas were copied from?

a vlookup from a pasted formula wud like this for example: "VLOOKUP(H47,'[FILENAME.xlsm]WORKSHEET'!$AL$16:$AR$501,6,FALSE)" what i need is "VLOOKUP(H47,WORKSHEET!$AL$16:$AR$501,6,FALSE)"...

thanks
michael