"ibbm" wrote:
thanks this works but something I don't understand is that both merged cells
are text fields but if my first cell has nothing in it... the linked one
shows a zero? Any ideas?

That's the way Excel evaluates link formulas pointing to empty cells <g

But we can mask it to appear as "empty" by using an IF, eg:
=IF('Department 1'!B1="","",'Department 1'!B1)

instead of just: ='Department 1'!B1
--
Max
Singapore
http://savefile.com/projects/236895
xdemechanik
---