We Want to Hear From You! What Do You Want to See on the Community? Tell us here!

Forum Discussion

Spud208's avatar
Spud208
Helpful | Level 5
6 years ago
Solved

Linking Excel files in Dropbox

We just switched to Dropbox for Business.  We have several Excel files with formulas that link to other Excel files all saved in a shared folder.  With our local server the links would work for every user the same.  Now with using Dropbox, the link will work for one user and not for another user.  If the 2nd user changes the file path to make the link work for them, then it will no longer work for the first user.  How do we make it so all users in the shared file can open the Excel file and have the links update without having to change the file path for each user?

  • While I've never encountered this issue, this likely has to do with where your spreadsheet is trying to read the pathname from.
    What I imagine is occurring is each computer has a different working directory and so the pathnames are pointing to the right file, but the wrong directory.
    For example, you may be trying to read a filename called Doc.txt. Your computer may read a directory such as:
    C:/Users/Bob/Dropbox/Doc.txt
    Whereas your colleague's system may be trying to read it from:
    C:/Users/John/Dropbox/Doc.txt

     In other words, you will probably want to change the pathname to a relative one. Here's a webpage demonstrating how:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/903163/how-to-create-absolute-hyperlinks-and-relative-hyperlinks-in-word-docu

    Let me know if this helps!

     

    Cam

3 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion
  • cmndrsn's avatar
    cmndrsn
    Explorer | Level 4
    6 years ago

    While I've never encountered this issue, this likely has to do with where your spreadsheet is trying to read the pathname from.
    What I imagine is occurring is each computer has a different working directory and so the pathnames are pointing to the right file, but the wrong directory.
    For example, you may be trying to read a filename called Doc.txt. Your computer may read a directory such as:
    C:/Users/Bob/Dropbox/Doc.txt
    Whereas your colleague's system may be trying to read it from:
    C:/Users/John/Dropbox/Doc.txt

     In other words, you will probably want to change the pathname to a relative one. Here's a webpage demonstrating how:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/903163/how-to-create-absolute-hyperlinks-and-relative-hyperlinks-in-word-docu

    Let me know if this helps!

     

    Cam

About Delete, edit, and organize

Solve issues with deleting, editing, and organizing files and folders in your Dropbox account with support from the Dropbox Community.

Need More Support

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!