Many thanks to user grum/Graham who documented this bug years ago in an online Adobe forum thread. (If they’re not already showing, select Panel Options… in the Links panel’s popup menu and then check both Sheet and Cell Range in the Show in Link Info column.) I need to put this Excel file in Indesign - and the link, so I can update.
Just re-edit the linked sheet, add (or remove) a single column, save it, close Excel, and then give the link update another try.įor Excel files with multiple sheets, WordsFlow displays the link’s selected Sheet and Cell Range in the Links panel’s Link Info section. Excel puts the formula in a cell and adds last result, and which is read by. And that’s where this bug will get you, because that generic message will leave you not knowing why the link update failed.Īs dire as the message sounds, don’t panic the link is still valid and the fix is the same as above. When InDesign attempts to auto-Update the edited link. You save, close Excel, and pop back into InDesign, and then find yourself presented with You select the link, click Edit Original, and work on the Excel file a bit and maybe add a few columns such that the sheet now happens to contain exactly 26 columns. Now, imagine that you have a linked Excel sheet that was placed with WordsFlow and a custom Cell Range. Alternatively, the file can be down-saved to an old-style Excel Workbook ( xls format), if that works better for you. If you add a column, it doesn’t need to be used in what’s imported, it just needs to hold a value (be non-empty) in the Excel sheet. For Excel, the choice of sheet and cell range is a little more important. And if someone wants to create a Word-based version for InDesign, it should be the sole item in there. You’ll see this error message:Īt this point, the error can be worked around by simply adding (or removing) a column. The Import Options box helps specify things like which cells we’re bringing in for the table, style imports, and such. Once the Import Options dialog is shown, select the sheet, enter a valid, custom sub- Cell Range, and then click OK. To see the problem, create a new document in any version of InDesign (CS5–CC 2018), bring up the Place dialog, check Show Import Options, and then select an Excel file ( xlsx only) containing a sheet with exactly 26 columns (such that the last column is Z). While it’s annoying if you run into this problem while Placing a sheet with WordsFlow, it’s downright insidious if you run into it while updating a linked sheet. HYPERLINK function in Excel returns a shortcut or hyperlink to a specific object, which can be a web page, a file saved in the PCs permanent memory, a group of cells on a sheet in an Excel workbook. We’ve recently discovered that InDesign’s Excel import filter has a weird, long-standing bug where it won’t accept a custom Cell Range if the sheet contains exactly 26 columns (or a multiple of 26 columns). Excel examples HYPERLINK function to create dynamic hyperlinks. InDesign Rejects Custom Excel Cell Ranges