I copy my excel worksheet into a Mem. Stick. Then I work mith my workbook in
Memory Stick and save. When I copy it back to my original computer, links in
formulas and directories change. What can I do to prevent this?

Hi

It is always safest to do any work with the file on your local hard disk,
rather than on a removable device.

Do your work, save copy and then with Windows Explorer copy file to
removable device.
In reverse, copy from Removable device to your hard drive, open file and do
work, save to hard drive.


Regards

Roger Govier


dorter wrote:
I copy my excel worksheet into a Mem. Stick. Then I work mith my workbook in
Memory Stick and save. When I copy it back to my original computer, links in
formulas and directories change. What can I do to prevent this?

dorter wrote:
I copy my excel worksheet into a Mem. Stick. Then I
work mith my workbook in Memory Stick and save.
When I copy it back to my original computer, links in
formulas and directories change. What can I do to prevent
this?

For my edification, could you or someone else please
explain (by example) what you mean by "links in formulas
and directories" that could affect a workbook when it is moved.

I am not aware of any feature of Excel that stores references
to files external to the xls file being processed. If such a
feature exists: (a) it should come as no surprise that it would
not work if the workbook is moved; and (b) such a failure would
not be limited to moving the workbook to a memory stick.

Such a feature would seem to make the workbook non-portable
-- incapable of transfering (in any usuable form) to any other
computer and perhaps to any other media (second disk, for
example).

Roger Govier wrote:
dorter wrote:
I copy my excel worksheet into a Mem. Stick. Then I work
mith my workbook in Memory Stick and save. When I copy
it back to my original computer, links in formulas and directories
change. What can I do to prevent this?

It is always safest to do any work with the file on your
local hard disk, rather than on a removable device.

Please explain how your cautionary suggestion relates to the
problem observed by the OP.

I wonder if you are referring to the risk of removing the media
without first allowing MS Win to complete the write to the media.
Yes, there is a risk of human error. Yes, your suggestion works
around that. To the end, it is not a bad suggestion. Of course,
the alternative is for people to be diligent about using the Eject
or Safely Remove Hardware feature or to disable the buffering
feature altogether (sigh, I forgot how).

But if that is what you are referring to, please explain how you
believe it is related to the OP's complaint that when the xls file
is worked on directly from the memory stick, then copied "back
to the original computer", "links in formulas ... change". Do
you think the OP is simply misinterpreting what happened?
That is, do you think the OP meant to write: the "links in
formulas" failed to retain their latest changes?

And what do think the OP means by "directories" (or "links in
directories"?) that changes in the xls file for whatever reason?
Honestly, I have no idea what "directories" (or "links in
directories"?) in an xls file could be affected even by the failure
to write buffered data to removable media.

wrote

For my edification, could you or someone else please
explain (by example) what you mean by "links in formulas
and directories" that could affect a workbook when it is moved.

Any path names would include the current drive letter?

--
David

David wrote:
For my edification, could you or someone else please
explain (by example) what you mean by "links in formulas
and directories" that could affect a workbook when it is moved.

Any path names would include the current drive letter?

Of course! But I am not aware of any path names stored in a
spreadsheet. Can someone give specific practical examples?
If they were, that would render the spreadsheet non-portable.
That's an interesting "security feature": the spreadsheet can be
used only on the computer it was created on. But it seems
commonplace to want to move spreadsheets from computer to
computer.

Conversely, if such a feature exists, only a fool would be
surprised when it (path name or whatever) does not work after
the file is moved. That is, if a path name in an spreadsheet has
the form "E:..." when stored on a memory stick, it should come
as no surprise that it does not work when the file is moved to the
C-drive.

Since I assume the OP is no fool, I presume the OP is not talking
about anything so obvious. Instead, I presume the OP is talking
about something more subtle. Perhaps the OP can shed some
light on this.

wrote

Since I assume the OP is no fool, I presume the OP is not talking
about anything so obvious. Instead, I presume the OP is talking
about something more subtle. Perhaps the OP can shed some
light on this.

Agreed. I've never had a problem with files with links not working when
copied to other machines as long as all linked files were in the same
folder. But then I don't open them from the memory stick as I know at least
one person that has experienced loss of all files on the stick that way.
Something to do with the way Office apps handle temp storage.

--
David

The cautionary note pertains to corruption of files when saving
from Excel to removable devices. The worst were diskettes
because of limited capacity, but removable devices can be
removed inadvertently. Also saving from Excel to a removable
device can change links. You should save your files and close
them in Excel and use another program to copy such files to
removable media.

When restoring a backed up copy from removable media you
should be aware of other problems if you do not restore to the
same directories. This could affect references.

As far as the actual problem experienced by the poster, it is
also related, because by saving the file to another location
from Excel you change the references to other files, or workbooks.
If you change the references to your personal.xls or your
toolbars you could have serious difficulties. It is best to make
backups with Excel down.
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

wrote in message oups.com...
Roger Govier wrote:
dorter wrote:
I copy my excel worksheet into a Mem. Stick. Then I work
mith my workbook in Memory Stick and save. When I copy
it back to my original computer, links in formulas and directories
change. What can I do to prevent this?

It is always safest to do any work with the file on your
local hard disk, rather than on a removable device.

Please explain how your cautionary suggestion relates to the
problem observed by the OP.

I wonder if you are referring to the risk of removing the media
without first allowing MS Win to complete the write to the media.
Yes, there is a risk of human error. Yes, your suggestion works
around that. To the end, it is not a bad suggestion. Of course,
the alternative is for people to be diligent about using the Eject
or Safely Remove Hardware feature or to disable the buffering
feature altogether (sigh, I forgot how).

But if that is what you are referring to, please explain how you
believe it is related to the OP's complaint that when the xls file
is worked on directly from the memory stick, then copied "back
to the original computer", "links in formulas ... change". Do
you think the OP is simply misinterpreting what happened?
That is, do you think the OP meant to write: the "links in
formulas" failed to retain their latest changes?

And what do think the OP means by "directories" (or "links in
directories"?) that changes in the xls file for whatever reason?
Honestly, I have no idea what "directories" (or "links in
directories"?) in an xls file could be affected even by the failure
to write buffered data to removable media.