XL97: Links In Microsoft Excel 4.0 Workbooks Are Incorrect

When you open a Microsoft Excel 4.0 workbook (containing bound worksheets) in Microsoft Excel 97, the links between worksheets may not point to the correct source worksheet(s). The links may refer to the worksheet name that the formula exists on instead of to the worksheet name the links were using when they were created.

NOTE: You will not experience this behavior if you are linking between Microsoft Excel 4.0 workbooks. This only happens when you are linking between worksheets within a Microsoft Excel 4.0 workbook.

To correct this problem, install Microsoft Excel 97 Service Release 1 (SR-1).

To work around this problem, you can use Microsoft Excel versions 5.x or 7.x to open the Microsoft Excel 4.0 workbook and save it in a current workbook format. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open the Microsoft Excel 4.0 workbook in Microsoft Excel versions 5.x or 7.x.
2. On the File menu, click Save As.
3. In the Save As Type box, select Microsoft Excel Workbook (*.xls) and click Save.

You can open the workbook in Microsoft Excel 97, and the links are updated correctly.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Excel 97. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Excel 97 SR-1.

For additional information about SR-1, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

For more information about updating links, click the Index tab in Microsoft Excel 97 Help, type the following text and then double-click the selected text to go to the "Update references to a workbook that has been renamed or moved" topic.