How to reference a cell or range in an external spreadsheet?

Question

I have one spreadsheet already saved with some data, then in a new spreadsheet in the same folder on the same hard drive I'm trying to reference a cell in the previously saved spreadsheet file.

From what I've read, I'm supposed to click Insert on the top menu, then Link to External Data, then choose the file and cell(s) in the External Data popup dialog. But after I choose the file, the OK button remains disabled, and the "Available Tables/ranges" box remains blank. This happens both in the Linux and Windows XP versions.

What am I doing wrong?

If I select the "Update every" checkbox there is no difference; I still can't do anything because the OK button remains disabled.

Answer 1

For data in another spreadsheet the easiest solution is to use external references. You can reference data by 'absolute or relative path to file'#Sheet3.A1:Sheet3.B5 or if you want project a bigger external area to an area with the same size use array formulas in combination with external references.

With Libreoffice 3.5 you are even able to create external references to unsaved files and the references are adjusted the first time the referenced file is saved.

Then there is as you correctly mention also the link feature. For this feature you need to create a range name in the linked document that refers to the area you want to link. (see http://help.libreoffice.org/Calc/Link_to_External_Data)

Answer 2

The easiest way:
In TargetSpreadsheet select a cell and type =, then immediately switch to the SourceSpreadsheet and click on the cell you want the data from and press Enter.