Duplicating Folders   

Version: MS Office Excel 2003
I have a "Big" folder, containing several other "Small" folders, which
contain several workbooks in them.
Many of these workbooks link to workbooks within the other "Small"
folders. Everything works great. The problem is the "Big" folder is a
monthly folder. I need to create a copy of this "Big" folder each
month, and rename it to the current month. The problem is when I copy
a paste a new "Big" folder for May, some of the links within the
workbooks reference the data from the April folder. Others seem to
work fine. Why do some of the links recognize they need to reference
the May folder, but others are still referencing April? Each new "Big"
folder should be self-contained with all links staying inside. Perhaps
there is a better way to copy the "Big" folder to allow all the links
to change? Thanks in advance for your help!

Mark

date: Thu, 29 May 2008 14:16:01 -0700 (PDT)   author:   unknown

Re: Duplicating Folders   

Good job you are not using Excel 2007 which has a bad feature for 
working with a file structure such as this (if you have A.XLS open and 
it is linked to B.XLS in folder C and you open B.XLS from a different 
folder D the links are redirected to the file from folder D).

With Excel 2003, formula links to source workbooks in the same folder 
as the destination workbook or a sub-folder thereof are usually held as 
relative links so should not give a problem, provided that all users of 
the workbooks have read access to all the folders.

Hyperlinks are a different matter. If I recall correctly they are 
created as relative in 2003 by default (unless a hyperlink base other 
than your "big" folder is specified in the File > Properties dialog for 
the workbook).

To enable me to help further, please clarify whether you are talking 
about Excel formula links, hyperlinks and/or non-Excel links (e.g. 
links to picture files).  Also if you can give an example of a workbook 
which does relink correctly (with the content of the Edit > Links 
dialog) and one which does not (ditto) we might be able to spot 
something.

Bill Manville
MVP - Microsoft Excel, Oxford, England
No email replies please - respond to newsgroup

date: Fri, 30 May 2008 07:57:19 GMT   author:   Bill Manville

Re: Duplicating Folders   

On May 30, 2:57 am, Bill Manville  wrote:
> Good job you are not using Excel 2007 which has a bad feature for
> working with a file structure such as this (if you have A.XLS open and
> it is linked to B.XLS in folder C and you open B.XLS from a different
> folder D the links are redirected to the file from folder D).
>
> With Excel 2003, formula links to source workbooks in the same folder
> as the destination workbook or a sub-folder thereof are usually held as
> relative links so should not give a problem, provided that all users of
> the workbooks have read access to all the folders.
>
> Hyperlinks are a different matter. If I recall correctly they are
> created as relative in 2003 by default (unless a hyperlink base other
> than your "big" folder is specified in the File > Properties dialog for
> the workbook).
>
> To enable me to help further, please clarify whether you are talking
> about Excel formula links, hyperlinks and/or non-Excel links (e.g.
> links to picture files).  Also if you can give an example of a workbook
> which does relink correctly (with the content of the Edit > Links
> dialog) and one which does not (ditto) we might be able to spot
> something.
>
> Bill Manville
> MVP - Microsoft Excel, Oxford, England
> No email replies please - respond to newsgroup

Hi Bill,
Thanks for your response. These links are not hyperlinks, just
formulas pulling numbers from other workbooks. It appears the problem
has to do with the hierarchy of where the files are located. If a
worksheet is linked to a file that isn't either on the same level or
below, it reverts back to the original link location. When I move the
files with links to the top, and keep the data files in sub-
directories below them, the links copy correctly to the new file. So
after reading you reply, and some trial and error, I moved the files
around in the folders to make sure the files that rely on data from
other folders/files are above them in the "Big" folder. It seems to be
working so far!

Mark

date: Fri, 30 May 2008 13:33:01 -0700 (PDT)   author:   unknown

Re: Duplicating Folders   

Your solution to the problem is a good one.

Bill Manville
MVP - Microsoft Excel, Oxford, England
No email replies please - respond to newsgroup

date: Fri, 30 May 2008 22:37:11 GMT   author:   Bill Manville