On Tuesday, September 11, 2012 11:50:21 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Monday, April 12, 2010 7:45:01 AM UTC-5, swoxo wrote:

In Excel 2007, I have a workbook with one link that I want to break. In the

Ribbon, I go to the Data tab, and in the Connections section I choose Edit

Links. In the Edit Links window, I select the link that I want to break

(there is only one link there), and I click on the button that says "Break

Link". I get a pop-up warning that once I break the link, my action cannot

be undone. There are two buttons under the warning, one that says "Break

Links" and one that says "Cancel". I click on "Break Links" and nothing

happens. My link is still there, and if I save and close the workbook, I

still get the security alert every time I reopen it.



I cannot delete or relocate the source Excel workbook that mine is linked

to, because other people are using that source. I just want to break my

workbook's link to that source. Any ideas why the Break Link button isn't

doing that for me?



One scenario that leads to hard-to-find links is the use of cross-sheet conditional formating. If cells containing cross-sheet conditional formating are pasted into a new file, a link is created within the conditional formatting back to the originating file. This link cannot be broken in the traditional way. You have to change or clear the conditional formating to remove the link. To clear, go to the Home tab on the ribbon, click Conditional Formatting--Clear Rules--Clear Rules from Entire Sheet. To find the cell ranges containing this type of formatting across an entire workbook use File--Check for Issues--Check Compatibility. Within a sheet you can also use Conditional Formatting--Manage Rules.

Hi - this suggestion was very helpful as I was having the exact issue after copy-pasting information from one workbook into another. Thank you!