Hi,

I have been using the "get external data" utility for a few years now where
I work. I go out to a data site with refresh every 5 minutes. I retain the
data in adjacent cells one after another to produce a trend line. I do this
for a 12 hour duration to show production output progress. It works well at
local PCs running an independent file; same file, just running on different
computers.

A couple times a day, management gathers in a conference room to review the
daily production status. The computer that is in that conference room, is
off and on, and used for different (unrelated) meetings throughout the day.
So, I can't keep it running to retain data and/or update every five minutes.

When I use that conference room for these production up-dates, I wondered if
there is a way to share the file that is running back at my desk, so that
when I open excel and launch the file on the conf. rm. PC, the trend line is
"up-to-date" using the data from my PC. The problem I have ran into when I
try this, is when I "share" the file at my desk, so the conf. rm. PC can
open it, the external data retrieval is disabled; grayed out... which makes
the program useless.

I don't know much about databases, but there may be a way to use the file at
my desk, to keep an additional database populated for the twelve hours, and
then just reference that data from any PC and be able to see progress
throughout the day. Does anyone know how to start thinking about this--
maybe MS Access or some other excel twist that I don't know about? I'm
probably not using the appropriate software to do what I am trying to do...
with limited budgets and so on, this sort of works for me... but let me know
if there are other tools or s/w I should look into.

Thanks,

John

hi,
have you tried linking the conference room pc file to your
pc file via get external data?

-----Original Message-----
Hi,

I have been using the "get external data" utility for a
few years now where
I work. I go out to a data site with refresh every 5
minutes. I retain the
data in adjacent cells one after another to produce a
trend line. I do this
for a 12 hour duration to show production output
progress. It works well at
local PCs running an independent file; same file, just
running on different
computers.

A couple times a day, management gathers in a conference
room to review the
daily production status. The computer that is in that
conference room, is
off and on, and used for different (unrelated) meetings
throughout the day.
So, I can't keep it running to retain data and/or update
every five minutes.

When I use that conference room for these production up-
dates, I wondered if
there is a way to share the file that is running back at
my desk, so that
when I open excel and launch the file on the conf. rm.
PC, the trend line is
"up-to-date" using the data from my PC. The problem I
have ran into when I
try this, is when I "share" the file at my desk, so the
conf. rm. PC can
open it, the external data retrieval is disabled; grayed
out... which makes
the program useless.

I don't know much about databases, but there may be a way
to use the file at
my desk, to keep an additional database populated for the
twelve hours, and
then just reference that data from any PC and be able to
see progress
throughout the day. Does anyone know how to start
thinking about this--
maybe MS Access or some other excel twist that I don't
know about? I'm
probably not using the appropriate software to do what I
am trying to do...
with limited budgets and so on, this sort of works for
me... but let me know
if there are other tools or s/w I should look into.

Thanks,

John


.

Try creating a DB in Access and under the tables tab use the menu file/get
external data/link tables.

"gifer" wrote:

Hi,

I have been using the "get external data" utility for a few years now where
I work. I go out to a data site with refresh every 5 minutes. I retain the
data in adjacent cells one after another to produce a trend line. I do this
for a 12 hour duration to show production output progress. It works well at
local PCs running an independent file; same file, just running on different
computers.

A couple times a day, management gathers in a conference room to review the
daily production status. The computer that is in that conference room, is
off and on, and used for different (unrelated) meetings throughout the day.
So, I can't keep it running to retain data and/or update every five minutes.

When I use that conference room for these production up-dates, I wondered if
there is a way to share the file that is running back at my desk, so that
when I open excel and launch the file on the conf. rm. PC, the trend line is
"up-to-date" using the data from my PC. The problem I have ran into when I
try this, is when I "share" the file at my desk, so the conf. rm. PC can
open it, the external data retrieval is disabled; grayed out... which makes
the program useless.

I don't know much about databases, but there may be a way to use the file at
my desk, to keep an additional database populated for the twelve hours, and
then just reference that data from any PC and be able to see progress
throughout the day. Does anyone know how to start thinking about this--
maybe MS Access or some other excel twist that I don't know about? I'm
probably not using the appropriate software to do what I am trying to do...
with limited budgets and so on, this sort of works for me... but let me know
if there are other tools or s/w I should look into.

Thanks,

John