Creating links to cells with no content, but that have formatting

I am trying to link a group of cells that have no content, but that all have
a blue pattern background into a new file. When I link the cells, zero comes
up because there is no content. I know there is a way to fix that, but is
there a way to link to the formatting? This way if i change it from blue to
red on the source page, my new file will show that change?

I tried copy>paste special>paste link, then paste special>formats, but it
only copies the format, it doesn't link it, so it does not reflect changes in
the original documents formats when I make them.

Any ideas?

Hi Cerah,

You could create an Auto_Close macro in the source that would copy the file
to a different Excel file, call it FormatChanges. When you close the source
workbook, FormatChanges updates via the Auto_Close. Then you would create an
Auto_Open macro in the destination workbook. It would run each time the
destination workbook opens. It would Open FormatChanges, copy the format,
paste special, format only to destination, close FormatChanges and file save
destination workbook.

Kinda clunky, but maybe it would work for you.

PB

"cerah" wrote:

> I am trying to link a group of cells that have no content, but that all have
> a blue pattern background into a new file. When I link the cells, zero comes
> up because there is no content. I know there is a way to fix that, but is
> there a way to link to the formatting? This way if i change it from blue to
> red on the source page, my new file will show that change?
>
> I tried copy>paste special>paste link, then paste special>formats, but it
> only copies the format, it doesn't link it, so it does not reflect changes in
> the original documents formats when I make them.
>
> Any ideas?