OneDrive-to-Desktop Referencing: Excel

[Camranjaber]

Hi, I feel like I've done quite a bit of research to not have found an answer to this - please help!

Using Office 2013

Background: I work for a company that has about 20 facilities with an employee at each that performs general data entry multiple times per week for about 300 items each time (inventory tracking) into a workbook in excel (on their hard-drive), and the current process is for the people that are using this data to remotely access the computer through our host server or receive an email with the data from those at the facilities, save a back-up to their own hard-drives, copy and paste it to the compilation file, then delete the old back-up.
Obviously this is primitive, and that's why I'm seeking alternatives - I started with the company recently and the CFO simply has not had time to deal with this.

I believe some type of cloud software, ideally OneDrive, is imperative here. The problem is the following:


Primary Question: Is there a way to pull data (say, with a v- or h-lookup, or simply a cell reference) from a workbook exclusively on OneDrive from a workbook exclusively on a desktop?

Secondary Question: Is there a way to "edit links" as there is in the desktop version of Excel (the feature located in the "Data" tab)?

Follow-up Question: If the answer is purely no to these, can anyone provide an alternative "cloud" software that might do the trick, such as Google Sheets? The solution I'm looking for could include just "yes" to one of these I had the same problem with it as well for both questions, though I may have missed something.

Thanks very much for reading!

 

[DRSteele]

I did an experiment. I created a file with a few numbers in it and saved it on OneDrive. I opened that file from OneDrive. I created another file and pressed = then switched to the OD file and clicked on one of the cells that contained my earlier numbers and pressed enter and Excel created a link. I closed the OD file and the link still existed but now its full location was displayed. I saved and closed the file and re-opened it; it required I address a security warning, which I did. It seems the link automatically updates. I surmise that the linking procedures, editing functions and properties are the same using a OD file as they would be using any local file with the exception that an unconnected computer won't be able to update the link in the OD file on MS server and will warn in such a case.

So I disconnected my computator from the internet and opened the local file that contained the link. Excel required an update of the link; interestingly, it updated what it called the Offline Copy, and Excel even says on the bottom of the window that it's the Offline Copy. So I could carry on and complete my task; when connected again, my alterations updates the OD file.

So I think you're good to go, as long as a collection of workmen are not trying to update the files all day long. In an office setting like that, you'll most likely need to use SharePoint or all the edits will get so jumbled and confused nobody will know what's what.

 

[Camranjaber]

Sorry for the late response - thanks very much for that! I appreciate the time, and for my purposes, this will work!