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.
