Invalid external reference when opening PC file

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humak - 24 Feb 2005 18:05 GMT

I've got some Mac users on both Office X (10.1.6) and Office 2004
(11.1.0). They have been receiving Excel files from PC users on Office
XP which are either crashing Excel, or are repeatedly displaying the
"Your formula contains an invalid external reference to a worksheet"
message. The same file opens correctly on PCs (other than the source
system).

I've reproduced this behavior on several Mac systems/ PC systemss.

I searched this group & found a reference to a utility/xla:
FindLink.xla, & downloaded same. I don't see how this will help in this
situation from the Mac side. Could someone give me a clue as to how to
proceed with troubleshooting this issue?

TIA!

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Bob Greenblatt - 24 Feb 2005 20:20 GMT

On 2/24/05 1:05 PM, in article
1109268313.742535.143350@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com, "humak"
<humphrey@alaska.net> wrote:

> I've got some Mac users on both Office X (10.1.6) and Office 2004
> (11.1.0). They have been receiving Excel files from PC users on Office
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> TIA!

If the files contain macros, perhaps the PC author hard coded some path
references using "c:\" or something like this. Obviously, this will not work
on a Mac. If the file contains links to other sheets, make sure these are in
the proper folder hierarchy on the Mac side.

Signature

Bob Greenblatt [MVP], Macintosh
bobgreenblattATmsnDOTcom

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Mac Forum / Applications / Excel / February 2005

Invalid external reference when opening PC file