Lets say I am in an excel file, we will call it file #1. Previously, with
the old version of excel(Excel 2002), I was able to use the VLOOKUP function
in excel to look up information in a different excel file (lets call it
excel file #2) and have the output show up in excel file #1, the one I was
working in.

Yesterday, I attempted to use VLOOKUP for the first time since the upgrade
from Office XP to Office 2003. I found that although the VLOOKUP function
worked fine within the same worksheet, as well as the same file but different
worksheet, I no longer had the ability to have it pull information from a
different file like I did before. This was very frustrating to me, and I
tried it several times, several different ways, but to no avail. I am
wondering if there is something that the new version of office has that does
not allow me to link the files in this way without first doing something
different. I was using the function box within VLOOKUP that prompts you for
the information needed in each section to complete the formula, and when I
tried to link to the other file and use the columns I needed for the look up,
after selecting them, the box (for Table_Array) would remain blank as if I
had not selected any information at all for that part of the formula.