Comments on: UDFs and Moving Add-in Files

By: Jan Karel Pieterse

Jan Karel Pieterse — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:25:00 +0000

Dick:

http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2008/06/02/fixing-links-to-udfs-in-addins/

By: Jan Karel Pieterse

Jan Karel Pieterse — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:24:00 +0000

Robin:

With any circular calculation scheme in Excel I advise you to ensure you can break the circle(s) by using a reset cell and a cell with a sensible starting value for the circle.

Say we have cell A1 as the reset cell and B1 as the cell that holds a starting value, then make sure one of the cells in the circular calculation model has something like:

=IF(A1="RESET",B1,OriginalFormulaInCell)

By: Robin Hammond

Robin Hammond — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:05:00 +0000

Just thought I’d add an additional complication to this. Sometimes, if the UDF lies within a circular calculation chain and the link goes haywire, the circular calculation chain gets stuck with a #Name error even after the links are fixed. The only workable solution I’ve found is to port all the formulas for each erroring UDF cell into a temporary holder (I use an ado recordset), then write each one back and force a full recalc.

By: John Walkenbach

John Walkenbach — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:16:00 +0000

In older versions of PUP, the UDFs were in XLA files. But that caused so many problems for users (e.g., sending a file to a colleague) that it made sense to change it so the functions traveled with the workbook.

Fortunately, those UDFs have been around a long time and are relatively problem-free.

By: Doug Jenkins

Doug Jenkins — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:36:00 +0000

I usually keep my UDFs in a workbook rather than an add-in, with some documentation and examples.

I keep the master file in my Spread folder, and copy the current version to my project folders as required. That way I have a copy of the version used on the actual project, rather than linking to a possibly updated version in a different folder, which may get moved or give different results.