Excel cannot find External Link

Question

It is difficult to find them when they are in

• range names
• conditional formatting
• drop downs
• charts/graphs

This has been an issues for 10 to 15 years

Microsoft - why do you make it hard to find the external links?

You KNOW where they are - why don't you tell us where to find them!

Answer 1

Hironk5

Greetings!

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

Based on the description you posted, it seems that you have an issue with MS Office wherein you want to know how you can fix the search option of your Excel app as you were unable to find specific External links under - range names,- conditional formatting,- drop downs,- charts/graphs.  

Let’s work together in finding the best solution to this issue.

For me to better understand the issue, I’d like to ask a few questions:

• What is the current build number of your Excel program?

• Does this issue only occur on one specific file only?

• Are you the owner of the file or was it shared to you?

• What initial troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?

In the meantime, we would like you to try the steps on how to find links (external references) on a Workbook down below:

Linking to other workbooks is a very common task in Excel, but sometimes you might find yourself with a workbook that has links you can’t find even though Excel tells you they exist. There is no automatic way to find all external references that are used in a workbook, however, there are several manual methods

you can use to find them.

You need to look in formulas, defined names, objects (like text boxes or shapes), chart titles, and chart data series.

Any Excel workbook you’ve linked to will have that workbook’s filename in the link with its .xl* file extension (like .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm), so a recommended method is to look for all references to the .xl partial file extension. If you’re linking to another source, you’ll need to determine the best search term to use.

Find links used in formulas

1. Press Ctrl+F to launch the Find and Replace dialog.
2. Click Options.
3. In the Find what box, enter .xl.
4. In the Within box, click Workbook.
5. In the Look in box, click Formulas.
6. Click Find All.
7. In the list box that is displayed, look in the Formula column for formulas that contain .xl. In this case, Excel found multiple instances of Budget Master.xlsx.
8. To select the cell with an external reference, click the cell address link for that row in the list box.

**Tip:**Click any column header to sort the column, and group all of the external references together.

Referenced link: Find links (external references) in a workbook - Microsoft Support

Let me know if this helps,

Sincerely

Khou Sun

Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

Hello

We haven't heard from you in 72 hours, so we will consider your issue resolved. If you do need further help, please create a new thread to discuss your concerns through this link:Create a new question or start a discussion (microsoft.com), as we will not be monitoring this thread going forward.

Thank you for understanding.

Sincerely

Khou Sun

Microsoft Community Moderator