hi all, here's what i've been able to do in order to get this to work

Problem:
Dynamically created named ranges in a closed workbook are not accessable
from another workbook

Solution:
in the new workbook create a new worksheet
in A1 use this formula
=counta('c:\temp\[Book2.xls]Sheet1'!$A$1:$A$10000)
whe c:\temp is the path to your workbook
Book2.xls is your workbook name
Sheet1 is your sheet name
and the range is starting from your first data entry, and the end
is well beyond the last data entry (if your list will grow,otherwise end it
at your last data entry). Adjust this with +/- if you have data above or
below that you do not want to include in this dynamic range. (ie if you have
a header row, append a '-1' to the end of the formula)

in A2 use this formula
='c:\temp\[Book2.xls]Sheet1'!$A1
whe c:\temp is the path to your workbook
Book2.xls is your workbook name
Sheet1 is the sheet name of the source data
and $A1 is the starting point of your data
copy this down to A10000 or wherever you want to stop (best to copy it down
to wherever you stopped in the COUNTA function above)
(if you have many data ranges as I did, you may want to repeat the first two
steps until you are done creating the source locations and then copy the
range A2:??2 down especailly if you are going to 10000 or wherever...) (ie A3
should be =.......$A2, etc etc)

now create a named range using:
=$A$2:index($A$2:$A$10000,$A$1)

and now you can use your newly created dynamic ranges in your new workbook
to do things like:

=sumproduct((MyNamedRange1="A")*(MyNamedRange2="B" )*MyNamedRange3)
(as an array formula)

i found this especially helpful in creating a summary workbook for orders,
inventory, customer tracking, etc for a person that only wanted to see that
data, and would never have the source workbook open.

then you can set the new workbook to always update the links.

hope this helps!

if there's any clarification needed (or i made an error) let me know

J