Can you create a link if there is no data in the source cell?

Peter Dunn

I want to make it easy to add new rows and new data in a source sheet, and have the cells automatically appear in another sheet. Can't seem to do it. Can it be done?

Jenny Lam

When you use "Link from Cell from other sheet..." and then highlight a cell for a row in the source sheet, the "Create link" button will be grayed-out if the row has not been “created” yet and hence does not exist.

 

A row will be "created" when new data are entered into any one of the cells in that row. Try to "create" the row by putting some data to any cell on the row and then save the sheet.  At this point, all the cells in that row will be available as sources for linkage.  In your case, if you don't want any data in that row, feel free to clear the data. The row will remain there as it has been created.

Valerie

Hi,

 

I believe that my question is the same as Peter's, however I have tried and don't quite understand the answer from Jenny. Hoping I can clarify.

 

I have SHEET A which collects data from clients via Web Forms.

 

As soon as a client enters new data, I want some of that information to also appear in SHEET B. I use cell linking to make this happen.

 

Any new data added after initial linkage will not transfer to SHEET B currently, unless I readjust the cells selected from SHEET A to include the new data.

 

I don't want to have to keep checking and re-linking to SHEET A, I'd like for it to be more automatic. SHEET B does not seem to know that there is new information in SHEET A.

 

Is there a solution?

Thanks very much

J. Craig Williams

Peter, Valerie

 

Short answer: no.

There are at least two third party tools that will COPY the data from one sheet to another when new rows are added or the information is updated.

The second (the update) then functions as a link, mostly.

 

I don't think either will create a link for you, though.

 

The two tools that I use are

Zapier (www.zapier.com) - they have a free version that suits me due to times it needs to do anything.

Azuqua (www.azuqua.com) - they don't have a free version, but do have a trial version so you can determine if it will work for you.

 

Craig

 

 

 

Valerie

Thank you! I'll look into those. 

Mark Graham

This is a pretty fundamental function.  What good is a dashboard, or cell linking if you have to remember every location where new data might be added to a sheet through a form or manual input.  If I want to see something in my dashboard or another sheet such as how many new clients I have as they are added to the original sheet, I have to go back and adjust the dashboard widget.  What if I have to do this on multiple dashboards for different users within the company?

In excel I can just reference the sheet and even a specific cell range.  How can we not request a sum of one row or column without designating a static cell without a third party integration?

I can think of about 100 applications for this function for our company alone.