We need to look at objects, defined names, formulas, objects, chart titles, and chart data series to find these external references.

#1 – Steps to Find External Links Used in Formulas

#2 – Steps to Find External Links Used in Defined Names

  • Step 2 – Check for each entry in the list. For external references, look in the “Refers To” column. External references contain a reference to another workbook.

#3 – Step to Find External Links Used in Excel Objects

  • Step 1 – In the “Home” tab of the Excel window. In the “Editing” group, click on the “Go To Special” option under the “Find & Select” option.

  • Step 2 – Then, select objects and click “OK.” It will select all objects on the active worksheet. To move between each selected object, we must press the “Tab” key on the keyboard.

  • Step 3 – For a reference to another workbook, look in the formula bar of an image, such as [Budget Excel Template.xlsx].

#4 – Steps to Find External Links Used in Chart Titles

  • Step 1 – First, we must click on the “Chart Title” of the chart that we want to check for external links. Then, in the “Formula” bar, look for a reference to another workbook, such as “[Chart.xlsx].”

#5 – Steps to For Find External Links Used in Excel Chart Data Series

  • Step 1 – We must first select the chart that we want to check. In the “Current Selection” group, click the arrow next to the “Chart Elements” box in the “Format” tab, then click the data series that we want to check.

  • Step 2 – Now, in the “Formula” bar, look for a reference to another workbook, such as [Types of Charts Excel Template.xlsx] in the SERIES function.

#6 – Steps to Find External Links Using Edit Links Option

We  can use the following steps for finding external links using the “Edit Links” option:

  • We must first use the Ctrl+F keys to start the Find and Replace in the Excel dialog box. Click Options. Then, enter .xl in the Find what box. Next, click Workbook in the Within box and Formulas in the Look in box. After that, click Find All. In the list box displayed, we may see the Formula column for formulas that contain .xl. For this example, Excel has found multiple cases. Else, selecting the particular cell with an external reference in the list box, click on the cell address link for that row.

  • Step 1 – We must go to the “Data” tab first. Then, in the “Connections” group, click on “Edit Links.”

  • Step 2 –  It will open the “Edit Links” dialog box, which will have a list of all the worksheets that are being linked.

  • Step 3 – Click on the Break Links excelBreak Links ExcelIn the excel worksheet, there are two different methods to break external links. The first method is to copy and paste as a value method, and the second method is to go to the DATA tab, click Edit Links, and choose the break the link option.read more option to convert all linked cells to values.

#1 – Things to Remember While Breaking Links in Excel

Once we break a link to the source worksheet of an external link, all the formulas using the values in the source worksheet are converted to their current values.

For example, the calculated value will replace the SUM formula once we break the link to the external reference =SUM([Budget.xls]Annual!C15: C30). The calculated value will replace the SUM formula. As we cannot undo this action, saving a version of the destination worksheet is better as a backup.

#2 – Things to Remember While Updating all the External Links

You can decide whether to update links automatically at startup or after startup.

  • We must go to the “Data” tab. In the “Connections” group, click on “Edit Links.” Then, click on “Startup Prompt” and can choose the option we want.

#3 – Things to Remember About Controlling Links to Other Worksheets

The links are automatically updated when the source and destination worksheets are open on the same computer.

When we open a destination worksheet and the source worksheet is not open, a dialog box of a trust bar may pop up asking whether to update the links.

We can control the trust bar as to whether the “Trust Bar” alerts us or whether to update all links when the trust bar alert does not appear. We can also update only selected links if the worksheet contains more than one link.

For manually updating all links or none of the links in a worksheet, we must follow the below steps:

  • Close all worksheets.For updating uniformly, all the source worksheets must be opened as updates will not be uniform if one source worksheet is open and others are closed.Open the worksheet that comprises all the links.For updating the links on “Trust Bar,” click “Options.”Then, click “Enable this Content.”

For manually updating only some of the links to other worksheets, we must follow the following steps:

  • First, close all worksheets.Next, open the worksheet that comprises the links.Then, click on the “Data” tab. After that, in the “Connections” group, click “Edit Links.”Finally, in the “Source” list displayed, we must click on the linked object we want to update.

  • We must hold the “Ctrl” key and click each linked object to select multiple links.For selecting all links, we must use the “Ctrl+A” key.Lastly, click “Update Values.”

This article is a guide to Finding Links in Excel. This article teaches us to find external links in objects, defined names, formulas, chart titles, and chart data series with practical examples. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles: –

  • Hyperlink Excel FormulaUsing External Links in ExcelVBA HyperlinksRemove Hyperlinks in Excel