VLOOKUP: is it really unable to fetch data from another closed workbook?

I have done some search about VLOOKUP to see if it is really can fetch data from a closed workbook. There are two different opinions: some said it could, but others said the source workbook needs to be open first.

My colleague experienced this problem yesterday. She has a spreadsheet which has a VLOOKUP function to get data from another workbook:

=VLOOKUP(A1,'c:\Document\[TOTAL Clients.xls]Data Sheet'!$C$1:$E$65536,3,FALSE)

She noticed that the result is wrong when the source file TOTAL Clients is closed. I asked her to open the source file, and immediately the result works perfectly.

Can Excel expert really give some advice on this question to clarify it?

Workbook should remain open for change.

Press F9 key to update the data manually. I think this will work.

So, for VLOOKUP to work to get data from an external workbook, the external workbook needs to open?

Can I get more opinion about VLOOKUP?

Hi romperstomper. She did update the link. I also helped her to update the link and the status showed 'OK'. The calculation is also on (automatic).

If we agree that VLOOKUP should work for closed workbook, then I don't know what is really the reason to explain this VLOOKUP bizarre behavior

Hi, FDibbins, I did another test as you suggested. The data do exist.

Very confusing about the behavior of VLOOKUP. Is it because the file is in the format of Excel 2003?