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 reference to 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 always consist of the following components:
▪Quotation mark
| External cell references should always start with a quotation mark. You can use either single quotation marks (') or double quotation marks ("). |
▪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
| You then have the file name enclosed within square brackets. Only PlanMaker and Excel files are allowed. |
▪Sheet name
| The next component is the name of the worksheet in which the desired cell is located. |
▪Quotation mark
| You then have to enter another quotation mark. |
▪Exclamation mark
| Next, you type an exclamation mark. |
▪Cell reference
| The last component is the address of the cell(s) to which you want to refer. Of course, cell ranges are also permitted. |
To complete your input, press the Enter key↵. PlanMaker will then read the content of the cell from the specified file.
For information on updating and managing external cell references, see the next section.
Notes
▪If PlanMaker is unable to find the specified file, it will display a dialog box in which you can select the file after 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] as the path and file name – for example, =[x.pmdx]Sheet1!A1. Thus, you can intentionally trigger the appearance of the file dialog box after pressing Enter and conveniently select the file from the dialog box.
▪If PlanMaker is unable to find the specified worksheet, it will display a dialog box in which you can select the worksheet after you press the Enter key.
▪The path to the external file is usually saved absolutely. If the external document is in the same folder as your workbook (or a subfolder of it), however, PlanMaker stores only the relative path.
| In practice, this means that if your document and the external file are located in the same folder, references to this external file will stay intact even if you move both files to a different folder. |
Tip: Quickly insert a reference via "Paste special"
If you want to avail of an alternative way to create external references without having to type in anything manually, proceed as follows:
| 1. | Open the document that contains the cell to which you want to refer. |
| 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 Paste 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 reference button. |
PlanMaker now creates an external reference to this cell.