Mac loses Excel links if a Windows machineopens and saves the file

T

txjeep

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I have recently started using an iMac (Intel 2.8, 24", Leopard, 2MB Ram, lots of HD space) on a Windows environment. Everything is great except for one or two things. One serious issue relates to Excel links between workbooks. We have some large spreadsheets on a workgroup type network that link to one another. Several of us use these spreadsheets, making changes and saving them. They are on a mapped drive called i:\spreads. The unmapped location is cdi\user\spreads. The Mac sees the same location as a shared folder on the network called cdi:user:spreads. I have the default file location in Excel set to user:

If I open one of the spreadsheets in Excel for Mac, use edit links to set the link sources properly, everything works as it should. If I save the file and reopen it, everything is still linked properly. If I open the same file on a Windows machine with MS Office, the links open fine also. Where the problem starts is when someone else uses the file and saves it using a Windows machine. After that, the Mac loses the path to the link sources, it is reset to the MacHD for all links, and I have to use edit>links to reset the sources back to the proper locations next time I open them with the Mac. The Windows machine can always find the links.

I have tried everything I can think of to make this work properly to no avail. One thing I tried was to use the Windows machine to link to the file using the network locations route (cdi\user\spreads) instead of the mapped drive (i:\spreads). The Mac could not find the files when I did that. I tried to find a way to map a drive on the Mac, which is apparently impossible. I even loaded MS Office on a Fusion partition and it does the same thing, but only if a Windows machine saves the file. I can save the file just fine with MS Excel running in Fusion, and the Mac can still find the links. As soon as a Windows machine saves one of the files, even MS Excel running on my Mac loses the link.

These spreadsheets are huge and have thousands of links and it takes much too long to reset them all the time. If I can't resolve this, I'm going to keep a Windows machine running so I can work on these spreadsheets. If any of you have any suggestions or solutions, I would be grateful.

Thanks!
 

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