If I understand what you want correctly, you are missing a quote mark in
front of the first apostrophe...

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=" & budget_file & "'monthly'!$r$16"

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"Celia" wrote in message
...
I am trying to copy a cell from one file into another file in a macro.
There
are hundreds of files all linking to the same cell so I thought I would
set
the formula up so that is has a variable for the filename but I can't
figure
out the syntax. The formula should link to cell $r$16 in worksheet
"monthly" in the changing file name and the variable I used for the
changing file name is budget_file. The following didn't work. Can
someone
tell me how to do this?


ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=" & budget_file & 'monthly'!$r$16"

--
Celia