I was just searching for this information. I thought that was the answer. The
answer given by another reader to hit F4 three times is correct, but not
effective if there are multiple references in the same cell.

It would be great to have the default for links to be relative instead of
absolute.

Thanks for the information, everyone.

"Harlan Grove" wrote:

ChrisK wrote...
Everytime I link an cell to another workbook, it automatically puts in an
absolute reference. Is there a setting I can change so I do not have absolute
references appear. This does not happen when you link a cell within the same
sheet only external worksheets.

This is core Excel functionality. External references are just treated
differently than internal references. No way to change this. Only
possible to learn to live with it.