Windows 10: Workbook Link support coming to Excel for the web

Brink · Aug 18, 2020

When collecting data from multiple workbooks, itâs often desirable to link directly to the data. Why? It provides a record of where the data was sourced and, if the data changes, you can easily refresh it. This has made Workbook Link support a highly requested feature for our web users. Today, we are excited to announce that Workbook Link support is beginning to roll out to Excel for the web.

This was previously only available in Excel for Windows and Excel for Mac, and is an important step on our journey to meeting one of our key goals: "Customers can use our web app for all their work and should never feel they need to fall back to the rich client". You can read more about our web investment strategy in Brian's recent post.

Creating a new Workbook Link

To create a new Workbook Link, follow these simple steps:

Open two workbooks in Excel for the web. They should be stored in either OneDrive or SharePoint.

In the source workbook, copy the range.

In the destination workbook, âpaste linksâ via the right click menu or via paste special on the home tab.

The gif below provides a brief demonstration.

Creating Workbook Links

You can also explicitly reference the workbook using the following reference pattern. ='https://domain/folder/[workbookName.xlsx]sheetName'!CellOrRangeAddress

Opening a workbook that contains Workbook Links

When you open a workbook that contains Workbook Links, you will see a yellow bar notifying you that the workbook is referencing external data.

Data Connection Warning

If you ignore or dismiss the bar, we will not update the links and instead keep the values from before. If you click the âEnable Contentâ button, Excel for the web will retrieve the values from all the linked workbooks.

Managing Workbook Links

To help you manage Workbook Links, weâve added a new Workbook Links task pane. The task pane can be accessed by pressing the Workbook Links button on the Data tab or via the âManage Workbook Linksâ button on the yellow bar above.

Workbook Links button on the Data tab

You can see the task pane below with its menus expanded below.

Workbook Links Taskpane

The task pane lists all your linked workbooks and provides you with information on the status of each of the linked workbooks. If the link could not be updated, the status will explain the cause. So that you can quickly spot issues, any workbook that cannot be updated will be bubbled to the top of the list.

At a global level you can take the following actions:
Refresh all: This triggers an immediate refresh of all linked workbooks.
Refresh links automatically: When enabled, this causes Excel to periodically check for updated values while you are in the workbook.
Break all links: This removes all the Workbook Links by replacing those formulas with their current values.

At a workbook level you can take the following actions:
Refresh workbook: This triggers an immediate refresh of that linked workbook.
Open workbook: This opens the linked workbook in another tab.
Break links: This removes links to that workbook by replacing those formulas with their values.
Find next link: This selects the next occurrence of a link to that linked workbook. (Great for quickly finding phantom links)

Workbook Links vs External Links

Direct links to external workbooks have historically been referred to simply as âExternal Linksâ. As we continue to add more external data sources to Excel, the term âExternal Linksâ has become ambiguous. To improve clarity going forward, we will use the term âWorkbook Linksâ instead.

Learn More

You can find additional information about Workbook Links on our help page.
Click to expand...

Source: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/...b/ba-p/1590314

:)

Brink · Aug 19, 2020

Workbook Link support coming to Excel for the web

When collecting data from multiple workbooks, it’s often desirable to link directly to the data. Why? It provides a record of where the data was sourced and, if the data changes, you can easily refresh it. This has made Workbook Link support a highly requested feature for our web users. Today, we are excited to announce that Workbook Link support is beginning to roll out to Excel for the web.

This was previously only available in Excel for Windows and Excel for Mac, and is an important step on our journey to meeting one of our key goals: "Customers can use our web app for all their work and should never feel they need to fall back to the rich client". You can read more about our web investment strategy in Brian's recent post.

Creating a new Workbook Link

To create a new Workbook Link, follow these simple steps:

Open two workbooks in Excel for the web. They should be stored in either OneDrive or SharePoint.

In the source workbook, copy the range.

In the destination workbook, “paste links” via the right click menu or via paste special on the home tab.

The gif below provides a brief demonstration.

Creating Workbook Links

You can also explicitly reference the workbook using the following reference pattern. ='https://domain/folder/[workbookName.xlsx]sheetName'!CellOrRangeAddress

Opening a workbook that contains Workbook Links

When you open a workbook that contains Workbook Links, you will see a yellow bar notifying you that the workbook is referencing external data.

Data Connection Warning

If you ignore or dismiss the bar, we will not update the links and instead keep the values from before. If you click the “Enable Content” button, Excel for the web will retrieve the values from all the linked workbooks.

Managing Workbook Links

To help you manage Workbook Links, we’ve added a new Workbook Links task pane. The task pane can be accessed by pressing the Workbook Links button on the Data tab or via the “Manage Workbook Links” button on the yellow bar above.

Workbook Links button on the Data tab

You can see the task pane below with its menus expanded below.

Workbook Links Taskpane

The task pane lists all your linked workbooks and provides you with information on the status of each of the linked workbooks. If the link could not be updated, the status will explain the cause. So that you can quickly spot issues, any workbook that cannot be updated will be bubbled to the top of the list.

At a global level you can take the following actions:
Refresh all: This triggers an immediate refresh of all linked workbooks.
Refresh links automatically: When enabled, this causes Excel to periodically check for updated values while you are in the workbook.
Break all links: This removes all the Workbook Links by replacing those formulas with their current values.

At a workbook level you can take the following actions:
Refresh workbook: This triggers an immediate refresh of that linked workbook.
Open workbook: This opens the linked workbook in another tab.
Break links: This removes links to that workbook by replacing those formulas with their values.
Find next link: This selects the next occurrence of a link to that linked workbook. (Great for quickly finding phantom links)

Workbook Links vs External Links

Direct links to external workbooks have historically been referred to simply as “External Links”. As we continue to add more external data sources to Excel, the term “External Links” has become ambiguous. To improve clarity going forward, we will use the term “Workbook Links” instead.

Learn More

You can find additional information about Workbook Links on our help page.
Click to expand...

Source: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/...b/ba-p/1590314

Jack Cook - aka Help_Line · Aug 19, 2020

Are these supported features in Excel on WP8?

I've not seen a specific list for supported features. I might suggest that you just test out a sample scenario to see if it does work.

Excel Mobile doesn't support all the features and functions that are found in Microsoft Excel 2010. If a workbook has content that's not supported, you can still open the workbook. The unsupported content won't be displayed though, and you might not
be able to edit the workbook on your phone. If a function isn't supported, the calculated value still appears in the cell, but you can't edit the workbook on your phone.

Clearly not all features are supported so you need to test it out.

AEOUserID · Aug 19, 2020

Excel Taskbar Icon not showing pinned workbooks

The Office 365 Excel Taskbar icon will not show list of pinned workbooks. I have to open Excel and then select from pinned workbooks.

The windows update assistant was used to do an update install, keep programs and files.

Win10 x64 version 1909 (OS build 18262.657)

Windows 10: Workbook Link support coming to Excel for the web

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