I have 4 spreadsheets that have the same layout - they all contain
text and dates. For example, there are columns for Person, Action
item, Date due. I need to create a 5th spreadsheet that combines all
of these so I can do sorting by due date for everyone.

I have tried a few things with no success:

1. copy individual spreadsheet and use paste special/paste link into
sheet 5. This works for data that is already in the individual
spreadsheet, but if I need to add a new row, it will not automatically
be added to the summary sheet (sheet 5). I can copy extra blank rows
at the bottom and paste them, but then I have all of these 0s in those
cells on the summary sheet.

2. Data consolidation - this doesn't appear to work for what I want
to do because I am not wanting to sum or avaerage anything.

I simply want to allow people to update their individual sheets so
that they are more manageable. However, I need the summary or master
sheet so I can go in and see the big picture.

any ideas??