I've been a C/C++ developer since '82, having developed 22 commercial products over the years. I'm having some trouble locating a top level overview for some VBA development I've started doing in Excel.

The basics: I have created a series of macros, user defined functions, and user forms within the VBA environment of Excel. Primarially guided by 2 books: "Excel 2002 Formulas" by Walkenbach and "Excel 2000 Programming in 24 Hours" from SAMS.

However, if I want to move my .xla addin files to other locations, the testing .xls file complains about the workbook containing links to other data sources, and that the links can not be updated. I "fix" the links going to the "edit links..." dialog and selecting the "update links" button. But a save of the file does not seem to stick. Additionally, going to the "addins..." dialog and browsing to the new locations for the .xla files does not seem to fix anything. I've started copying my source files into text files and recreating everything from scratch because I simply have no information about what is contained in which file type or how to treat a .xla file more like what I'm used to (.dll files or simply compiled C/C++ .o files.)

I've been searching the web and microsoft.com for the "developer overview", but am yet to find a detail of moving .xla files and why directing the "Addins..." dialog to my new file location insists on deleting the code modules contained within the .xla file.

I've found countless examples and please don't tell me to read the "Getting Started" articles from MSDN for Excel development. I get all that... but it is not what I'm looking for. I simply what to treat a .xla file like a .dll. If a .xls file needs to reference it, I should be simply able to tell Excel where it is via the "Addins..."... right?

Thanks for any pointers you can provide.
-Blakieto