Opening up XL 97 files in XL 2003 displays the message asking if you
want to update links with the buttons of "Update Links" and "Do Not
Update Links". Pressing "Do Not Update Links" results in the links
being updated anyway and if the linked file is not available you will
get errors in the cells with the link and any cell referencing these
cells.

Is there any way to convert an XL 97 file to XL 2003 and preserve the
data regardless of the linked files access? The Microsoft web site
describes this problem and a manual process to correct at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327006/.

A conversion program would save our company much in lost productivity
not to mention the headaches involved in manually correcting all the
files we have with embeded links.