Problems with Bloomberg External Links

[ryyjjyyr]

I have a problem with external links on Excel 2007.
More specifically, I have a spreadsheet that is linked to external data from
Bloomberg. After updating the information on a Bloomberg Terminal, I would
like to use the spreadsheet on a normal PC (not Bloomberg Terminal ). The
moment I open the spreadsheet on a normal PC, Excel 2007 immediately tries to
update the external Bloomberg links resulting in errors as the data cannot be
accessed.
In Excel 2003 I could get the spreadsheet to maintain existing external data
and then use formulas on that data to generate results.
The only option that works is to select manual calculation. However, the
moment you select calculate now (F9), the spreadsheet tries to obtain
Bloomberg data and errors result again.
I have tried all options available to stop the updating of external links
including
1) Deselecting Excel options/Advanced/Update links to other documents.
2) Selecting Trust Center/External Content/Disable automatic update of
external links.
3) Gone to Data/Edit Links. However, the manual update for the link is
greyed (cannot be selected).
The Bloomberg Links in Data/Edit Links shows the external link as an .xla
extension. When you open the spreadsheet in Excel 2007, somehow Excel does
not prompt you whether you want to update the external data even with you
select the option telling it to do so. Is this because it is an .xla
extension?
Anyone out there who knows how to rectify the situation?

 

[ryyjjyyr]

I managed to find out what went wrong looking at the microsoft technical pages.

Apparently according to kb925893, when Excel 2007 opens up spreadsheets that
were created on older versions it will update external links regardless of
your options you selected.

This is a problem for me. I think I will be looking for the downgrade option.

If anyone has a better solution please let me know. Thanks.