Cell references that refer to cells in a different document have to be entered in calculations as follows:
='C:\My Folder\[My Workbook.pmdx]Sheet1'!A1
This example returns a cell reference to the cell A1 in the worksheet "Sheet1" in the PlanMaker document "My Workbook.pmdx" in the folder "C:\My Folder".
As you can see, external cell references must consist of the following components:
▪Quotation mark
| External cell references should always start with a quotation mark. You can use either single quotes (') or double quotes ("). |
▪Folder
| Next, enter the entire path to the folder where the external file is located. For example: C:\My folder\ |
| Tip: If the external file is in the same folder as your document, you can omit the path. |
▪File name in square brackets
| Next comes the file name, enclosed in square brackets. Only PlanMaker and Excel files are allowed. |
▪Sheet name
| The next component is the name of the worksheet that holds the desired cell. |
▪Quotation mark
| Next comes another quotation mark. |
▪Exclamation mark
| Then an exclamation mark. |
▪Cell reference
| The last component is the address of the cell that you want to refer to. Cell ranges are also permitted, of course. |
To complete your input, press the Enter key↵. PlanMaker will now read the content of the cell in the specified external file.
For information on updating and managing external cell references, see the next section.
Notes
▪If PlanMaker is unable to find the specified file, a dialog box where you can select the file will appear when you press the Enter key.
Tip: If you don't want to type in the entire path and file name manually, you can use the following trick: In the cell reference, simply enter [x.pmdx] instead of the path and file name – for example: =[x.pmdx]Sheet1!A1. This will "force" PlanMaker to display a file dialog after pressing Enter, where you can comfortably choose the file you want to refer to.
▪If PlanMaker is unable to find the specified worksheet, a dialog box where you can select the worksheet from the specified file will appear when you press Enter.
▪Normally, PlanMaker remembers the entire (absolute) path of the external file. However, if the external file is located in the same folder as your document (or one of its subfolders), PlanMaker stores only the relative path.
| This means in practice: If your document and the external file reside in the same folder, references to this external file will stay intact even when you move both files to a different folder. |
Tip: Quickly insert a reference via "Insert content"
There's an alternative way to create external references, where you don't have to type in anything manually:
| 1. | Open the document containing the cell you want to refer to. |
| 2. | Copy this cell to the clipboard. |
| 3. | Switch back to the current document. |
| 4. | Navigate to the cell where you want the reference to be inserted. |
| 5. | Click on the arrow of the Insert icon  (on the ribbon tab Home | group Edit) and choose the command Paste special from the dropdown menu. |
| Alternatively: Right-click to open the context menu and select Paste special or simply use Ctrl+Alt+V. |
| 6. | In the following dialog box, click on the Paste references button. |
PlanMaker now creates an external reference to this cell.