No doubt, multiple Excel spreadsheets often need to be merged in one day. Even if you don’t want to combine these worksheets, sometimes you have to link cells of these sheets, because linking can save time. Here in this post, you will get to know how to link cells in Excel using different tricks.
When you work on Excel every day, it is better to understand more than the basics of this tool. Knowing a few advanced tricks definitely helps you a lot.
How to Link Cells in Excel with Paste Link
While duplicating any cell value, you must link cells in the same sheet because it saves lots of time. Using the Paste Link method, you can do this without further trouble. Below you can see the dataset given in three columns; Employee, Salary, and Working Hour.
Let’s follow the steps:
First, choose the cell you need to link. Here in this dataset we have chosen cell D8.
Now, copy the selected cell and for this right-click the mouse or else press CTRL + C to copy.
Choose another cell with which you need to link Cell D8. For this, we have selected Cell B12.
Open the Home tab and choose the Paste option. Select Paste Special from the drop-down menu.
You can even select Paste Special with right-click.
You will see a Paste Special window appears from which you need to choose Paste Link.
That’s it! Your linked cell is there in Cell B12.
How to Link a Cell Range in Excel
Usually, we have another great option to link cells in Excel when you need to link an entire cell range from another Excel tab. using this trick, you can save similar data in multiple sheets without editing both sheets.
Follow the steps given below:
Highlight the cells that needed to reference in the original tab with data.
Copy the cells by right-clicking from the mouse or with CTRL + C and for Mac users Command + C.
Open the other tab from sheet 2 and click on the cell in which you need to place the links.
Right-click on the cells and choose Paste Special.
Choose the Paste Link option from the lower left side of the menu.
From sheet 2, when you click on any newly linked cell, you will see the references from Sheet 1 given in the formula tab. when you change the data in the chosen cell from Sheet1, the data will change by default in the linked cells from Sheet2.
Why You Need to Link Cell Data in Excel
Whether you are a beginner or an expert, having knowledge about referencing data across multiple sheets is a great thing. You will easily manage to organize data in spreadsheets while referencing. For instance, if you use one sheet or workbook to gather raw data, you can then make a new tab for reports or summaries. The data needs to be changed when you link the cells between the two sheets.
Moreover, linking cell data also helps in minimizing the chances of duplicate numbers in different sheets. Ultimately, it reduces the probability of time wastage as well as the chances of making calculation errors.
How to Identify Linked Cells in Excel
The formula bar is the main thing that helps in identifying the linked cells. When you choose a cell, look at the formula bar, and you will see the formulas as:
When the linked cells are from the same workbook, the formula would be as:
=Worksheet Name!Reference
When the linked cells are from different workbooks, the formula would be as:
=Full Pathname for Worksheet!Reference
Closing Thoughts
This article briefly explains how to link cells in Excel by using some popular tricks. Each hack demands attention and understanding so that you can get the best outcomes in return.
