Is it possible to link to a source in a protected folder so that others can see the data?

[heloneill]

Hi,

At work, we have access to certain folders depending on our job role. Currently one of my monthly jobs is to enter data into a workbook from another workbook - a direct copying process that I would love to automate to free me up to do the rest of my job! But the workbook that I'm updating is then sent out to about 40 people who do not have access to the folders that the source data is saved in, so when they open up the document the linked cells are completely blank!

Is there a way around this?! I'm not well versed in VBA/Macros - all I know is from pages like this in order to do specific things but I'm willing to learn - I just don't know what it is I need to learn (if that makes sense?!).

Hope someone can help! I don't mind spending hours plugging in formulae/VBA if it means that in the long run the 40 pages of this workbook update themselves!

Thanks in advance and hope this all makes sense!

Hel

 

[JPARKHURST]

No, there is not way to offer access to a file which is inaccessible. Permissions come from the user (and often address), so when they access the file, they are accessing the network information, even though it is your file.

Does the file you want to access have a specific naming pattern?

What you can do - if you have a stable name - File20180101 or something,is to automate your input process with a macro to pull information in, but not to continue to reference it.

-Create foreign range
-import to local range
- save & distribute

HTH,

Jon

 

[offthelip]

Since you say that currently you manually copying the data, this can be automated using vba. The fastest and most flexible way is to use variant arrays. How you do it depends on the layout of the source data and the destination data i have done a similar task, used a hidden "mapping" worksheet to control what data went where. This meant that changs could be ma de without changing the vba