Auto-update in Excel 2007

[Will Mac]

How do you disable Excel 2007 auto-update on opening older format Excel
files? This happens without any prompt for the user to agree or otherwise. We
use quite a range of versions of Office across our organisation, and
unfortunately when we circulate spreadsheet information our Office 2007 users
lose the data in those spreadsheets on opening.

 

[Binary Bandit]

The Microsoft Knowledge Base has an article on it at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925893/en-us
Title = External links may be updated in Excel 2007 when you open a workbook
that was last saved in an earlier version of Excel

This is what it says to disable the auto update and auto-recalc functions:

To temporarily prevent the recalculation of files that were last saved in an
earlier version of Excel so that you can update or remove external links, set
the calculation environment to manual. To temporarily set the calculation
mode to manual, follow these steps: a. Close all workbooks.
b. Create a new workbook.
c. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Excel Options.
d. On the Formulas tab, click Manual under Calculation options, and then
click OK.
e. Open the saved workbook.

I know it only refers to auto recalculation in the answer but I believe it
stops the update of external links as well.