The invention, in one embodiment, is a method and system for reporting the
status of external references, or links, of a spreadsheet workbook. In an
Edit Links dialog box, the user may view a list of links and their
status. The user may select a Check Status button in the Edit Links
dialog box to check the status of the links without updating the links
because updating the links may require considerable time. A textual
status message is displayed for each link in the Edit Links dialog box.
The textual status message indicates to the user whether there is s
possible problem with the link. As part of checking the status of a link,
an analysis is made to determine whether any problems with the source
file exist. For instance, it is determined whether the source file is
open and whether it is valid. The results of this analysis determine what
is displayed in the status column of the Edit Links dialog box.
