Linking WorkBOOKS across directories

[maurices5000]

I found this information on Microsoft's website but i don't fully understand it because it is giving me trouble.

Network drive letters in links When you click a cell containing a link and the source workbook is closed, you'll see the full path to the source workbook. The path uses the drive letter you have mapped to the share. The links continue to work correctly for other users who map different drive letters to the same share.

You can edit linking formulas to use UNC names, such as \\myserver\myshare, instead of drive letters. UNC names can make links easier to update when several people will use a linking workbook, because Excel can update links that use UNC names even if users don't have a drive letter mapped to the network share. For example, you can change ='G:\[source.xls]Prices'!B5 to ='\\myserver\myshare\[source.xls]Prices'!B5. However, using UNC names can also reduce calculation speed, especially if your workbooks use calculation-intensive features such as the Solver add-in program.

I'm QUITE A FEW (maybe about 100 workbooks) that will be connected based on department and center.

A few problems. Once i do a department, i plan to save ALL SIMILAR Departments in different CENTER FOLDERS.

I've been afraid to use C: etc because i don't want to have to redo all my links since i don't know what letter or where exactly from the root the files will be placed on the server.

The other problem is that everytime i used teh "='\\myserver\myshare\[source.xls]Prices'!B5" type link, a dialog box pops up asking me to go directly to the file i want to link to. Otherwise it gives me a REF error. I can't possibly go to all these files. I need to be able to cut and paste these paths and maybe use CTRL + F (for Find) and do minor maintenance.

Any suggestions? I assume the more generic version was created to make it more portable across teh nextwork with out all the links breaking down, but i can't figure it out.

thanks!

[maurices5000]

No one has tried to link two workbooks together?