External links break after the source workbook is closed

I'im using an index - match - match formula with links to an external file.

Everything works fine until I close the source workbook. At that moment the liks break. The error I'm getting is #REF!.

I suspect the reason is that the source data are in form of an official table. I tried some formulas with data in the same workbook but outside the table and they keep working after the source file is closed.

I really want to keep the source data in a form of an official excel table.

Any ideas how could I make it work?

This is how the formula looks when the workbook is closed (the paths are long, sorry):

=INDEX('W:\Departement Operations\Personeel_Competenties\00_Competentiematrix\2013_competentiematrix technisch en medisch_V6.0.xlsm'!Table1[#All];
MATCH($A3;'W:\Departement Operations\Personeel_Competenties\00_Competentiematrix\[2013_competentiematrix technisch en medisch_V6.0.xlsm]TECH'!$A$14:$A$200;0);
MATCH(AV$2;'W:\Departement Operations\Personeel_Competenties\00_Competentiematrix\2013_competentiematrix technisch en medisch_V6.0.xlsm'!Table1[#Headers];0))

So basically it's only an INDEX using 2 MATCH functions, pretty standard.

I meant Excel table as described here, sorry for the confusion.

Thank you so much for pointing that thread out. I tried to make a search before posting but nothing came out.

My problem is exactly the same so I will use the actual references.

Thank you!

I have discovered them recently and I like them quite a lot.