How to make Excel use relative paths in external workbook links

In certain circumstances, external links created in Excel will use relative paths rather than absolute paths. This depends on the locations of the spreadsheets. The easiest way is to store the Excel documents in the same folder.

See this URL for more information (excerpt below): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/328440

• If the linked file and the source data file are not on the same drive, the drive letter is stored with a path to the file and file name.
• If the linked file and the source data file are in the same folder, only the file name is stored.
• If the source data file is located in a folder that is nested in the same root folder as the linked file, a property is stored to indicate the root folder. All portions of the path that are shared are not stored. For example, if the linked file C:\Mydir\Linked.xls is dependent on C:\Mydir\Files\Source.xls, the only portion of the path that is stored is \Files\Source.xls.
• If the source data file is one folder down from the linked file, a property is stored to indicate this. For example, the linked file is C:\Mydir\Files\Myfile\Linked.xls and the source data file is C:\Mydir\Files\Source.xls. Excel stores only \MyDir\Files\ .. \Source.xls. Note This allows a link to be maintained when the linked file is copied to an additional sub folder of the folder that the source file is located in. For example, the linked file is C:\Mydir\Files\Myfiles1\Linked.xls and the source data file is C:\Mydir\Files\Source.xls, the linked file, Linked.xls, is copied from the folder C:\Mydir\Files\Myfiles1 to a folder named C:\Mydir\Files\Myfiles2, and the link to C:\Mydir\Files\Source.xls is maintained.