Linking Notebooks

Suppose that you have a fairly large project that involves updating a lot of spreadsheet data and you'd like to divide the job up among several people. If you store all the information in one spreadsheet, you can't easily divide up the work. However, if you let each person create his or her own notebook, you can link the notebooks together. If you store all the notebooks on the same computer hard drive and in the same folder, links are even easier to create.

Tip

In the scenario I just described, it is wise to give setup guidelines to each person. That way, similar data will end up in similar cells in each notebook.

To create a notebook link, select the cell where you want the link to appear. Note that the notebook to which you are linking does not need to be open. In the selected cell, type a plus sign (+), an open bracket ([), and the name of the notebook you want linked to the open notebook. Include any valid sheet name and cell address. The format for the link should look like the following:

 +[notebookname.qpw]A:A1 

Include the drive letter and folder path if the notebooks reside on different hard drives or in different folders.

where qpw is the extension of the filename (you can link to Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 files using the proper filename extensions), A is the name of the sheet to which you want to link, and A1 is the cell address containing the information you want to appear in the linked notebook.

In Figure 7.22, cell B3 of the Annual Revenue notebook displays the word "January," but, if you look at the Input Line, you'll see that I linked cell B3 of the Annual Revenue notebook to cell B3 on sheet Qtr1 of a notebook called Training.

Figure 7.22. In notebook B, you can display the contents of a cell in notebook A.

The beauty of linking lies in the editing. If I open the Training notebook and change the contents of cell B3 on sheet Qtr1, Quattro Pro will automatically update the contents of cell B4 on sheet A of the Annual Revenue notebook.

You do not need to link like cells to like cells. I linked sheet A, cell B4 in both spreadsheets because I wanted to maintain identical structures in the two notebooks. You can display the contents of sheet A, cell B4 of notebook A in notebook B, sheet X, cell A2 using exactly the same technique described in this section.

The Absolute Minimum

In this chapter, you learned how to manage notebooksthe files you save that contain your Quattro Pro data. You learned how to:

• Create a new notebook with a template using the New from Project command on the File menu or create a new blank notebook by clicking the New button on the Notebook toolbar.
  
  
• Open a notebook you previously created using the Open File dialog box.
  
  
• Open an Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 file in Quattro Pro using the Open File dialog box.
  
  
• Save an Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 file in Quattro Pro using the Save File dialog box.
  
  
• Rearrange spreadsheets in a notebook by dragging them or by using the Move Sheets dialog box.
  
  
• Insert and delete spreadsheets using the Insert Cells dialog box and the Delete dialog box.
  
  
• Group spreadsheets to apply common formatting using the Define/Modify Group dialog box.
  
  
• Link notebooks by referring to a one notebook's name in a cell another notebook.
  
  

In the next chapter, you'll explore some interesting ways to improve the attractiveness of spreadsheets in a notebook.