ExcelBanter - Linking to data in another file

#1. The bad news is that one workbook is using a base date of 1904 and the
other is using a base date of 1900.

In xl2003, you can change this option via:
tools|options|calculation tab|check (or uncheck) 1904 date system

Most wintel users have this unchecked. Most Mac users check this.

You could uncheck this option and change all the dates in that workbook so that
the dates are consistent (checking the option in both workbooks is another way).

Saved from a previous post:

One workbook was using a base year of 1900 and the other was using 1904.
(tools|options|calculation tab|1904 date system)

One way to add those four years back is to find an empty cell, put 1462 into
that cell.

Copy that cell.

Select your range that contains the dates. Edit|PasteSpecial|click Add (in the
operation box).

You may have to reformat the cell as a date (mine turned to a 5 digit number).
But it should work.

You may want to do it against a copy...just in case.

(I'm not sure which one you'll fix. You may want to edit|pastespecial|click
subtract.)

Most windows users use 1900 as the base date. Mac users (mostly??) use 1904 as
the base date.

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If you don't want to change the base date in either of the workbooks, you could
subtract that 1462 to your formula:

=-1462 + '\\path_to_dir\[filename.xls]sheetname'!cell

But if you toggle that setting, your formula will break again.

Lenchik wrote:

Hi,

I have 2 problems I am working on:

1. I am trying to get a specific date from a cell in another closed
file and when I do:

='\\path_to_dir\[filename.xls]sheetname'!cell

somehow it gives me the wrong date (instead of 9/21/08 - 9/22/12)!!!

Is it better to do it through VBA macro?

2. I am trying as I open a workbook to populate a new row, below
existing ones. In this row, the first cell of column A will contain
that specific date range.

Please help! and Thank You graciously in advance

--

Dave Peterson