Excel Linking – how do I create links between worksheets in a workbook and also between workbooks Excel? Watch the video to learn more
This week’s hint and tip is about how to create links within Excel. This is for creating links between worksheets in a workbook and also for between workbooks. This is on our Intermediate Excel training course and covers how to create the links in your spreadsheets. We are going to go through it now below.
Creating links between worksheets in the same workbook
Firstly, you begin by making sure you have the workbook open that you want to create the links in. It is best to go through all the sheets so that you know where you want to create the links from before you begin.
To create a link from one worksheet to another, firstly select the worksheet that you want the link to go to. Once in that worksheet, select the cell that you want the linked data to go into. From here, type in = and then go to the worksheet where you are linking from. Once in this worksheet, select the cell that you are linking from and hit the Enter key on your keyboard. This will have now created the link from one worksheet to the other.
Creating links between workbooks
Before you begin, it is often helpful to split your screen so that you can see both workbooks at the same time. This makes it easier for you when you are creating the links between the workbooks.
To create a link between workbooks, you follow the same steps as you would above within a workbook. The main difference is the ‘path’ in the link is significantly longer as it contains the location of the workbook the link is being created from. When you create links between workbooks, they do not have to be open for the links to update; the links will update with the workbooks open or closed.
The video below shows you how to create both these types of links in Excel. Creating links between your worksheets and workbook can be very powerful for your spreadsheets. An example of its power, is that it can be used to display summaries of your data.
Take a look below at the video to find out more and then try it out on your own computer!
We hope you have enjoyed this hint and tip on Excel linking. Why not take a look at our previous one on Filtering?