Expert Required - Transporting live data between workbooks

[sam.tidswell-norrish]

Hi,

I have a rather tricky problem, and I was hoping someone may know the answer.

I have four seperate workbooks, all of which contain a 'Dashboard' tab with graphs (being pulled from other information from other tabs).

I am looking to get the 'Dashboard' tabs from all four workbooks into one Executive Dashboard in a separate workbook that automatically updates the information (ie is a live Dashboard depicting the other excel workbooks data). How would I go about doing this, please anyone?

 

[baitmaster]

hmmm... the term "open-ended question" springs to mind....

dangerous territory, linking multiple files together

You can create formulas in the exec level sheet that pull in from the other 4. No good if new version of any source file is created. or any file moved or otherwise changed. Not recommended

You can link the files programmatically so data is imported using VBA. Will possibly require manual intervention, or at least some expert coding to ensure that good error handling is in place, to report problems

I would look to either (1) link all files via a single data source (e/g/ database), with VBA controlling the flow of data, or (2) have a recognised network location that contains workbooks that are referred to in VBA from the master file. Second option probably easiest as a botch job, but you'll have to design the worksheets well, and be strict about people changing them outside of your design

 

[Norie]

When would you want the data updated?

One thing you could try would be to just import the required data when required.

Perhaps not totally 'live' but could be set up to be done at regular intervals.

It would also depend on what 'data' you want from the other workbooks.