Find links in excel

How to Find External Links in Excel? (Step by Step)

We need to look at objects, defined names, formulas, objects, chart titles, and chart data series to find these external references.

#1 – Steps to Find External Links Used in Formulas

#2 – Steps to Find External Links Used in Defined Names

• Step 1 – We must first go to the “Formulas” tab. Then, click on Name manager in excelThe name manager in Excel is used to create, edit, and delete named ranges. For example, we sometimes use names instead of giving cell references. By using the name manager, we can create a new reference, edit it, or delete it.read more in the defined names group.

• Step 2 – Check for each entry in the list. For external references, look in the “Refers To” column. External references contain a reference to another workbook.

#3 – Step to Find External Links Used in Excel Objects

• Step 1 – In the “Home” tab of the Excel window. In the “Editing” group, click on the “Go To Special” option under the “Find & Select” option.

• Step 2 – Then, select objects and click “OK.” It will select all objects on the active worksheet. To move between each selected object, we must press the “Tab” key on the keyboard.

• Step 3 – For a reference to another workbook, look in the formula bar of an image, such as [Budget Excel Template.xlsx].

#4 – Steps to Find External Links Used in Chart Titles

• Step 1 – First, we must click on the “Chart Title” of the chart that we want to check for external links. Then, in the “Formula” bar, look for a reference to another workbook, such as “[Chart.xlsx].”

#5 – Steps to For Find External Links Used in Excel Chart Data Series

• Step 1 – We must first select the chart that we want to check. In the “Current Selection” group, click the arrow next to the “Chart Elements” box in the “Format” tab, then click the data series that we want to check.

• Step 2 – Now, in the “Formula” bar, look for a reference to another workbook, such as [Types of Charts Excel Template.xlsx] in the SERIES function.

#6 – Steps to Find External Links Using Edit Links Option

We  can use the following steps for finding external links using the “Edit Links” option:

• Step 1 – We must go to the “Data” tab first. Then, in the “Connections” group, click on “Edit Links.”

• Step 2 –  It will open the “Edit Links” dialog box, which will have a list of all the worksheets that are being linked.

• Step 3 – Click on the Break Links excelIn the excel worksheet, there are two different methods to break external links. The first method is to copy and paste as a value method, and the second method is to go to the DATA tab, click Edit Links, and choose the break the link option.read more option to convert all linked cells to values.

#1 – Things to Remember While Breaking Links in Excel

Once we break a link to the source worksheet of an external link, all the formulas using the values in the source worksheet are converted to their current values.

For example, the calculated value will replace the SUM formula once we break the link to the external reference =SUM([Budget.xls]Annual!C15: C30). The calculated value will replace the SUM formula. As we cannot undo this action, saving a version of the destination worksheet is better as a backup.

#2 – Things to Remember While Updating all the External Links

You can decide whether to update links automatically at startup or after startup.

1. We must go to the “Data” tab. In the “Connections” group, click on “Edit Links.” Then, click on “Startup Prompt” and can choose the option we want.

#3 – Things to Remember About Controlling Links to Other Worksheets

The links are automatically updated when the source and destination worksheets are open on the same computer.

When we open a destination worksheet and the source worksheet is not open, a dialog box of a trust bar may pop up asking whether to update the links.

We can control the trust bar as to whether the “Trust Bar” alerts us or whether to update all links when the trust bar alert does not appear. We can also update only selected links if the worksheet contains more than one link.

For manually updating all links or none of the links in a worksheet, we must follow the below steps:

1. Close all worksheets.
2. For updating uniformly, all the source worksheets must be opened as updates will not be uniform if one source worksheet is open and others are closed.
3. Open the worksheet that comprises all the links.
4. For updating the links on “Trust Bar,” click “Options.”
5. Then, click “Enable this Content.”

For manually updating only some of the links to other worksheets, we must follow the following steps:

1. First, close all worksheets.
2. Next, open the worksheet that comprises the links.
3. Then, click on the “Data” tab. After that, in the “Connections” group, click “Edit Links.”
4. Finally, in the “Source” list displayed, we must click on the linked object we want to update.

• We must hold the “Ctrl” key and click each linked object to select multiple links.
• For selecting all links, we must use the “Ctrl+A” key.
• Lastly, click “Update Values.”

Recommended Articles

This article is a guide to Finding Links in Excel. This article teaches us to find external links in objects, defined names, formulas, chart titles, and chart data series with practical examples. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles: –

• Hyperlink Excel Formula
• Using External Links in Excel
• VBA Hyperlinks
• Remove Hyperlinks in Excel

External links are also known as external references. In Excel, when we use any formula and refer to any other spreadsheet apart from the one with the formula, the new spreadsheet is known as an external link to the formula. Also, when we provide a link to use a formula in another workbook, it is called an external link.

The location of the file that is highlighted in yellow in the above picture is the external link/reference. The link will make Excel go to the location and refer to the specified cell in the workbook.

The positive point in having an external link is that it’ll automatically update once the data in the workbook is changed. The best way to keep everything updated is by not changing the location, name, or deleting the workbook.

Otherwise, the file won’t update the link and data.

1. Edit Links Option
2. Find and Replace Option

Find External links using the Edit Links option:

Microsoft Excel has an inbuilt tool that allows you to search and find all external links, as well as edit them at your convenience. The following steps allow you to use the edit links option and find external references in your spreadsheet.

Step 1: Go to Data Tab

• Navigate to the Data tab in the top left corner of the window and go under connections group.

Step 2: Execute Edit Links option

• After navigating to the data tab, go under connections and click on the edit links option. The following will open the edit links dialog box and list all spreadsheets that’ve been referred to.

Step 3: Use the Break link option

• Click on the break link option to convert all the linked cells into values.
• Be careful that once these are converted into values, it’s not possible to undo the operation. The best way you can help yourself is by taking proper backup of the workbooks via clouds storage or external hard drive storage.

Using Find links option

Step 1: Select the Cells

• Select the cells in the workbook and go to Find and Select option in the top right corner of the Home tab.
• From the drop-down menu, click Find.

• In the find and replace pop-up menu, enter – ‘.xl’ in the search field and click find all.

Step 3: Check the Links

• The workbook will find all the cells that have external links in it.

Step 4: Select the Cells with links

• Select the following cells that have the links and convert all these values into formulas.

Dealing with Prompt error

In many cases, despite having found and removed all the links from the workbook, Microsoft Excel gives a prompt as that the workbook contains one or more than one external reference.

If you’re facing this issue, even after finding and removing the links, check for the following types of links in the workbook:

• Shapes
• Conditional formatting
• Named ranges
• Chart titles
• Data validation

The find and replace links option won’t fix the above-mentioned types, but it’s unlikely that you’ll get the prompt. There is also an add-in(extension) available to find links online. The following methods allow you to find, remove and edit links in Microsoft Excel.

Conclusion

That’s it for the tutorial. Following the above method, you can easily find links in your Excel workbook.