Thank you Bill. If you are in discussion with Microsoft it might be worth
pointing out the the MS Help refers to a Don't Update button, which doesn't
appear to exist.

"Bill Manville" wrote:

Excel 2007 makes the control of link updating harder, in my opinion;
certainly confusing!

As far as I can tell, the old method of controlling the
workbook-specific startup dialog has been replaced by an Excel-wide set
of trust center settings. The result is as you have seen - in order to
enable the links the user has to notice the bar that appears below the
ribbon and click the Options button and then Enable this content.

I am still trying to clarify with Microsoft exactly how they intended
the different settings in Edit Links and in the Trust Center and in
Excel Options to interact. It seems to me to be a bit of a mess.
----
Meanwhile, one option would be to have the users load a small workbook
that does not contain links and have it give the user the choice of
whether or not to update the links; it would then go on to open the
real workbook (using the UpdateLinks argument of Workbooks.Open to give
the required result); it would then close itself.
---
The small workbook would contain a macro in a standard module,
something like this:

Sub Auto_Open()
Application.OnTime Now, "Continue_Open" ' let Excel opening finish
End Sub

Sub Continue_Open()
' runs after the workbook is fully open
Dim iUpdate As Integer
If MsgBox("Shall I update the links?", vbYesNo) = vbYes Then
iUpdate = 3
Else
iUpdate = 0
End If
' change the file name in the next line...
Workbooks.Open ThisWorkbook.Path & "\Real.xls", UpdateLinks:=iUpdate
ThisWorkbook.Close
End Sub

Bill Manville
MVP - Microsoft Excel, Oxford, England
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