Truncated text using vlookup to linked worksheet

[Patricia D]

Using this formula
=VLOOKUP($B72,'I:\Contracts\Working\Reporting\Weekly Reporting\Marketing
Minutes\2006 Reports\Contracts\Master File\[Contracts Wkly Rept
Master.xls]Full Report'!$B:$G,5,FALSE)

The resultant text is truncated. If I open the source master file and
update the link, the text in the target document is then shown in full.
Unfortunately it disappears again if I close the source and update the link.
I've turned off automatic update, so that I can vaguely control this, but it
is not ideal.

btw I've also tried including Alt+Enter in the source cells to see if that
helps display in target cell - it doesn't.
I also changed formatting from Text to General, because when Text, I was
getting ####... as the value when I opened the source workbook.

 

[Dave Peterson]

That's the way excel works. If the sending workbook is closed, you get 255
characters (256??). If the sending workbook is open, you get all of the text.

I don't know of any workaround except to open the file--well, you could put the
text in multiple cells in the sending workbook and then retrieve and recombine
the long text.

Using this formula
=VLOOKUP($B72,'I:\Contracts\Working\Reporting\Weekly Reporting\Marketing
Minutes\2006 Reports\Contracts\Master File\[Contracts Wkly Rept
Master.xls]Full Report'!$B:$G,5,FALSE)

The resultant text is truncated. If I open the source master file and
update the link, the text in the target document is then shown in full.
Unfortunately it disappears again if I close the source and update the link.
I've turned off automatic update, so that I can vaguely control this, but it
is not ideal.

btw I've also tried including Alt+Enter in the source cells to see if that
helps display in target cell - it doesn't.
I also changed formatting from Text to General, because when Text, I was
getting ####... as the value when I opened the source workbook.