This formula:
=SUM([Barb.xls]Week Totals'!C3+[Wendy.xls]Week Totals'!C3
+[Gail.xls]Week Totals'!C3+[Kim.xls]Week Totals'!C3)

will be more than 4 times longer than this formula:

=[Barb.xls]Week Totals'!C3

Just because the drive/path will show up 4 times as often.

And if each of those small formulas are too long, then there is no chance that
that =sum() formula will work.

Create each of those formulas and close those workbooks and watch what happens
to the =sum() formula.

=========

I don't know enough about how your network is setup, but if you can put all the
files on a common network share, then your life will be a little easier.



dslocum wrote:

Dave, indeed this is the formula I will be using, though there are 15 of
these formulas, one for each Call Type.

=SUM([Barb.xls]Week Totals'!C3+[Wendy.xls]Week Totals'!C3
+[Gail.xls]Week Totals'!C3+[Kim.xls]Week Totals'!C3)

If I do create a worksheet that holds cell data like you have here,

=[Barb.xls]Week Totals'!C3
=[Wendy.xls]WeekTotals'!C3
=[Gail.xls]Week Totals'!C3
=[Kim.xls]Week Totals'!C3

I will still have the long formulas due to the Drive/Path issue,
correct?
The advantage you are saying is that I can then use the values found on
this worksheet in the formulas of the Managers Weekly Totals worksheet,
correct?

There is no way around the Drive/Path issue I am assuming. The Manager
isn't making changes to her spreadsheet; I only noticed that once I had
everything working on my machine and Saved and Closed all of the
individual workbooks and then opened them all back up to see if it
would really work as I imagined, it did work correctly. However, I
also noticed that the formulas in the Manager's workbook included the
Drive/Path to my computer and I was looking for a way to avoid that.

I agree, multiple copies of the same workbook is never a good thing.

So, once the manager receives all of the workbooks from her people, I
will edit the formulas in her workbook so that they point to her
Drive/Path.

Thank you so much for the input. You've helped me learn something and
have made my spreadsheets much cleaner and more professional.

d.

--
dslocum

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Dave Peterson