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You used to be able to see if the workbook had any external links from the paper clip icon- if it were blue, you knew there were links. Now the "Workbook Links" icon always shows a blue paperclip, even when there are no links, forcing you to open the pane to see if there are really any links. Changing data source in "Edit Links" was so much easier with the old functionality. The new pane is much more difficult to navigate. Please change it back!
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Bring the edit links feature back. At least ask the users who are actually using the feature that Microsoft has removed.
With the old dialog, I used to be able to go to Edit Links, select multiple files, and click Open File to open all the linked files at once. With this new Workbook Links function, I have to open each file individually.
Same with Breaking Links - I could select multiple files and Break Links - I may not necessarily want to break All links, but with the Workbook Link function it's either All or one at a time..
I found this information a few years after OP, first thanks to Margaret for the "how to" on adding the "Edit Links".
And to Microsoft, honestly stop adding stuff we don't want or asked for, or at least give us the option to either opt-in or out, every change you make keep screwing the workflow to many of us has, I have to keep rolling back on stuff you move, it delays my macros and even messes with muscle memory on how to move faster in the program.
I just noticed that too this morning. I'm a project manager and I have links to MSProject in my excel file. The Data/Edit Links is crucial for my work and I was panicking I couldn't find my normal Edit Links and see that it was replaced by this stupid Workbook Links. What a short sight from some software engineers. For some reason Workbook Links doesn't see my links to MSProject. Fortunatly, I was able to modify the ribbon, add a custom group and add the good old Edit Links to it.
- Pane vs. Dialog Ease of User
The task pane is supposed to be easier and better for Workbook Links.
Hi
new "Workbook links" does not allow to select multiple links and break links from multiple files at once. Very inconvenient as I want to clean up old links from a legacy file