Want to know more about Dash? Check out how Amy uses Dropbox and Dash to make her day easier here!
Forum Discussion
Link to a cell in a different Excel file saved in Dropbox
Hello everyone.
I am trying to link the value of a cell in an Excel file saved in a Dropbox folder to another cell in another Excel file saved in another Dropbox folder. Is there any way I can do this and have it working from different locations? To explain it better, cell A1 in File1.xls needs to look up the value of cell C2 in File 2.xls, but File1.xls and File2.xls are both saved in Dropbox.
The problem I have is that I need those values to be accessible and updated automatically from any device I use with Dropbox and by different users who have access to those folders. However, if I am working on those files from my MacBook, when I open the file on my iPhone using Dropbox and Excel apps, it says that there is an external link and it cannot be updated.
Thanks for your help!
4 Replies
- Lusil
Dropbox Staff
Hey dodomolinari, thanks for reaching out to us.
You're right, when you create such a link, it's looking for a specific location on your hard drive.
So when you open it from another computer and the path is different, the workbook isn't able to run accordingly.
You can find some additional information on this given by Walter, here.
Check it out and let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers!
- Thank you Lusil. I read the article but it is still not clear to me whether I can do this or not. Can I somehow link the value in a cell to the value in another cell in another file, both on Dropbox? And can I update those values from different devices that share the same Dropbox folder?
Thanks for your help.
Edoardo. - Daphne
Dropbox Community Moderator
There isn't a limitation from Dropbox that would prevent you from doing this dodomolinari.
Please just bear in mind that in doing this, if you reference a file with the file path "C:\Daphne\Dropbox\Folder\File", that the hyperlink added into the Excel cell will only work when using the local Excel app on your computer.
If you were to open the file online with the Excel Online integration, it can't read the local file path and would give an error in the cell.
Similarly, if you use Dropbox on another computer, the username might be different. So, the filepath to the file you want to link would instead be "C:\Edoardo\Dropbox\Folder\File", for example.
I hope this helps to explain the situation a little better!
Thank you Daphne. It sounds like I cannot then use the same link if I want the file to be working from different locations but I need to update the value manually.
