Linking cells from different workbooks

Hi

I've been trying to link cells from one workbook to another and but I'm having trouble getting the format to copy.

I have conditional formatting on the original cells eg. If cell has no value entered, the cell is red. Once a value is entered, the background will revert to white.

However once I copy and paste the link from a cell with NO value to another workbook, this conditional formatting does not copy over. It simply puts in a 0. If the original cell does have a value entered, it copies over fine.

Can anyone help?

ps the workbooks are not shared.

Thanks

You could try paste special, this allows you to copy formats. Go to Edit and
select it from there, this then brings up a menu.

"tillytee1" wrote:

>
> Hi
>
> I've been trying to link cells from one workbook to another and but I'm
> having trouble getting the format to copy.
>
> I have conditional formatting on the original cells eg. If cell has no
> value entered, the cell is red. Once a value is entered, the background
> will revert to white.
>
> However once I copy and paste the link from a cell with NO value to
> another workbook, this conditional formatting does not copy over. It
> simply puts in a 0. If the original cell does have a value entered, it
> copies over fine.
>
> Can anyone help?
>
> ps the workbooks are not shared.
>
> Thanks
>
>
> --
> tillytee1
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> tillytee1's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=27688
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=540590
>
>

Yep I've been pasting special and then the link.

The weird thing is, I've managed to do it previously on a similar workbook with last year's data and it worked! I think it is a default formatting problem but just can't suss it!!

Formulas don't bring over the formatting (including conditional formatting).
You could apply format|conditional formatting to that cell with the link if you
wanted, though.

And if your formula looks like:
='C:\My Documents\excel\[book2.xls]Sheet1'!$A$1

You'll get a 0 if that sending cell is empty.

You can rewrite your formula to check:

=if('C:\My Documents\excel\[book2.xls]Sheet1'!$A$1="","",
'C:\My Documents\excel\[book2.xls]Sheet1'!$A$1)

(all in one cell)

It's the same thing you see in a simple formula like:
=A1
if A1 is empty, you'll see a 0.
=if(a1="","",a1)
would be the fix for that.


tillytee1 wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> I've been trying to link cells from one workbook to another and but I'm
> having trouble getting the format to copy.
>
> I have conditional formatting on the original cells eg. If cell has no
> value entered, the cell is red. Once a value is entered, the background
> will revert to white.
>
> However once I copy and paste the link from a cell with NO value to
> another workbook, this conditional formatting does not copy over. It
> simply puts in a 0. If the original cell does have a value entered, it
> copies over fine.
>
> Can anyone help?
>
> ps the workbooks are not shared.
>
> Thanks
>
> --
> tillytee1
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> tillytee1's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=27688
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=540590

--

Dave Peterson

Thanks Dave, the 'if' function worked.