How To Reference Cells From Another Workbook In Microsoft Excel

When there are multiple workbooks in a single Excel spreadsheet, it may happen that data contained in one of those workbooks may be required in another workbook.

Suppose there are two workbooks named Original and Changes in a given Excel spreadsheet. A column of data from the “Original” workbook needs to be referenced in the “Changes” workbook. The column range in “Original” workbook is B8 to B10 and data contained in this needs to be copied to the “Changes” workbook as it is.

This is very simple to do in Excel. The format for referencing the cells between different workbooks is :

=nameofsourceworkbook!celladdressofthesourceworkbook

In the below example, the cell address range from B8:B10 that is located in “Original” workbook needs to be referred and filled in the “Changes” workbook.

Data from source workbook in Microsoft Excel

To do this, the Excel formula entered in the destination workbook (Changes) is :

=Original!B8

Referenced cells from other workbook in Microsoft Excel

The formula is dragged down till all the referred cells in the column from source workbook (Original) fill up the destination workbook (Changes).

This is a powerful way of copying content in Excel such that the referenced data can either be replicated or edited across workbooks as needed yet still remain updated.

Happy Excel-ing!

Comments are closed.