How to check and manage the status of links in Excel 2002 or later versions of Excel

This step-by-step article describes how to check the status of links and determine what actions are needed based on the status reported. The Edit Links dialog box in Microsoft Excel provides improved functionality, which allows you more control over the links in your workbooks.

Check Links

A link is a reference to another workbook. It is sometimes called an external reference. A link can also be made to another program, such as Microsoft Word 2002. This type of link is sometimes called a remote reference. Because data in another workbook or program may change, there are options to control how links are updated.

To check the status of the links in your workbook, follow these steps:

1. On the Edit menu, click Links.
   
   Note The Links command is unavailable if your file does not contain linked information.
2. Click Check Status to update the status for all links in the list.
   
   This process may take several minutes if the workbook contains a large number of links or if the source workbook for the links is on a network location and the network connection is slow.
   
   When the Check Status procedure is finished, the current status for all existing links is displayed in the Status column.
3. To further manage the links, select the link, and then take the required action as indicated in the following table:

      Status               Action Required
      ----------------------------------------------------------------------
      OK                   No action required; the link is working and up to
                           date. 
   
      Unknown              Click Check Status to update the status for all
                           links in the list. 
   
      Not applicable       The link uses Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) 
                           or Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). Excel 
                           2002 cannot check the status of these types of  
                           links.
   
      Error:               Click Change Source and select the correct        
      Source not found     workbook. The source may have been moved or
                           renamed.
      
      Error:               Click Change Source, and then select the correct
      Worksheet not found  worksheet. The source may have been moved or
                           renamed.
   
      Warning:             Click Update Values. The link was not updated when
      Values not updated   the workbook was opened. 
   
      Warning:             Click Open Source and calculate the workbook by
      Source not           pressing F9. The workbook may be set to manual
      recalculated         calculation. To set to automatic calculation, click
                           Options on the Tools menu, select the
                           Calculation tab, and then click Automatic. 
   
      Warning:             Some names cannot be resolved until the source
      Undefined or         workbook is opened. Click Open Source, switch
      non-rectangular name back to the destination workbook, and then click
                           Check Status. If this does not resolve the issue,
                           make sure the name is not misspelled or missing.
                           Switch to the source workbook, point to Name on the
                           Insert menu, click Define, and then look for the
                           name. 
   
      Warning:             Click Open Source. The link cannot be updated until 
      Open source to       the source is open.
      update values     
   
      Source is open       The source is open. No action required unless
                           worksheet errors are present.
   
      Values updated       No action required; the values have been updated.
      from filename  
   
      Warning:             Excel cannot determine the status of the link.
      Status indeterminate The source may contain no worksheets or be saved
                           in an unsupported file format. Click Update Values.
   					

For more information about links, click Microsoft Excel Help on the Help menu, type links in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.