Automatic updating of a cell from one spreadsheet to another doesn't work

Ok, so I have this spreadsheet, and a Writer document with embedded
spreadsheets.
It's an invoice document with two pages each with it's own spreadsheet.
Because I
could never figure out how to link the subtotal from one page (i.e. one
internal embedded
spreadsheet to another) to the next, I linked in a subtotal from the time
tracking spreadsheet.
Apparently internal document links are illegal in LibreOffice.

Why? I don't know. He's on third.

Well it *USED* to automatically update, back in the day. Not sure when it
broke. Maybe I broke
something in the configuration. It's pretty freaking fragile. I breath the
wrong way and something breaks.
Anyway.

I noticed maybe last month it's not updating anymore. Again this month,
nothing. Opening up the links
dialog and it shows as manual and no option to make it automatic. Searched
help docs and it says it
needs to be a DDE link. Ok, fine. So I follow the instructions and make a
"DDE" link. Only when it does that
it doesn't include the file path, so it can't find the link. Useless. Tried
to edit it. I doesn't like that, and it turns it into a URL.
URLs don't compute.

This should be a simple no-brainer. Here I am 2 hours later. Wasting a
couple hundred dollars of my time
doing a task that can't be much simpler. I was doing this stuff in Word
Perfect two decades ago. No three.

So, is there a workaround or fix for this?
I'm using Libreoffice version 4.4.3.2 in Mint 17 64 bit.

Brian

needs to be a DDE link. Ok, fine. So I follow the instructions and make a
"DDE" link. Only when it does that
it doesn't include the file path, so it can't find the link. Useless. Tried
to edit it. I doesn't like that, and it turns it into a URL.
URLs don't compute.

There is no path until the linked document is stored somewhere.

So, is there a workaround or fix for this?
I'm using Libreoffice version 4.4.3.2 in Mint 17 64 bit.

Using spreadsheets like this is common practice, nevertheless highly
unprofessional.

Well, I used to use a table but that was ***way*** worse in Open Office
(pre-LibreOffice). Professional or unprofessional. It gets my invoices out.
Sure, I could write a program to do it. In fact, I have written programs
that do it. But this is what I use for this client, because they want a
Word document. The structure of ODF, is so bizarre, that I don't have the
time to devote to design a program to build an ODF compliant document. So,
this is what I use. Because the client is always right. That is the first
rule of being professional. I build it in Libreoffice and export it to Word.

LibreOffice, should be able to handle a linked field properly. I don't see
how the automatic linking can work at all. I can't link from within a
document and I can't link from another document. Looks like a bug. Maybe
it's a feature. The automatic linking that doesn't link.

You don't tell us what you do. In fact, there are no less then 5
different methods to link between spreadsheets.
No uploaded example document, no bug report number, not even office
version, formula or menu call which lets us reproduce anything you are
actually doing. I have no idea how one can print invoices without using
a database.
Overly complicated stuff like this can break any time (particularly with
LibreOffice).
"Does not work" is not a problem description.
Spreadsheets do not have any "tables".

Wow! Sensitive much? I didn't tell anyone what to do.

No I didn't upload an example document.
No I haven't filed a bug report, because I was asking for guidance. By
hopefully someone willing to be helpful and more experienced with
everything LibreOffice than me, rather than someone to berate me.
Yes, I included the Office Version, but since I don't get copies of my own
posts, I don't t see them.

But, here it is again.
I'm using Libreoffice version 4.4.3.2 in Mint 17 64 bit. The document was
created in a previous version. Possibly even in Open Office. I would have
to look at previous invoices to determine that. It's at least 2 years old.

It is not a spreadsheet, as I stated, it is a Writer document with a 2 page
invoice with two embedded spreadsheets that links to an external
spreadsheet time entry document. There is probably a better and more
efficient way of doing this. I did this out of frustration from using
tables where I would copy and paste from my timelog, but had to do a third
step in between because that's just the way it is in Writer, even though
there had been feature requests to change/fix that for years.

Doesn't work is a perfectly good problem description when something doesn't
work.

It draws from my time entry for this client. It's a manual process. I
manually create this every month for my client, because they want this.
I don't create invoices like this for personal pleasure. I have C, VB, and
COBOL programs to do these kinds of things. Programs I've written.

You state there are five ways to o this, but don't even enumerate them for
me. That's hardly a solution description.

As for what I did to accomplish this "doesn't work". It's easy.

1) Open Writer and add some text.
2) Add a spreadsheet with 5 columns. Give it a name, Table1. Make the first
column a 2 decimal place number. Make the 4th column an hourly rate. Make
the 5th column the product of columns 1 and 4. Add a page subtotal to the
last visible 5th column cell. Add a credit line cell above that. Add a
detail subtotal line above that, and have it sum all the lines above. The
page subtotal cell is the detail line minus the credits.
3) Add a page break, copy the text to the new page.
4) Add a spreadsheet to this page in the same manner as the above
spreadsheet. With two differences, describe below.
5) Instead of a page subtotal, call the final line Invoice Total.
6) Add a link to the page subtotal cell in the previous spreadsheet to the
summation formula in the invoice total cell. Do it in this manner.
6.a.) Enter the summation formula to subtract the page credits from the
detail subtotal. Add a plus. Enter the previous page spreadsheet. Uh-oh
can't do that.
7) Copy and paste. No that doesn't work.
8) Paste Special. No that doesn't work.
8) Manually enter the link. I've never found the right syntax. This might
work, if only I knew the magic words. "Table1.$Sheet1.$G$36" doesn't work.

10) Now open a new speadsheet document and relabel sheet1 as Invoice2.
11) Enter a dollar amount in the first cell.
12) Save it.
13) Go back to the Invoice document.
14) Enter the Invoice total cell, add a plus, create a link to the cell in
the spreadsheet document by going to that spreadsheet and double-clicking
on the proper cell. Go back to Invoice document and hit enter.
15) Voila a manual link.

16) Now let's make a DDE link.
17) Go back to the spreadsheet copy the cell.
18) Back to the Invoice sheet. On the cell below the invoice total paste
special and set the link checkbox. Hit enter.
19) It doesn't work. No path to the document.
20) Manually enter the path to the document. Voila you have something. It
doesn't work. But you have displayed text and not an error message. Or you
have a manual link like before.

I've attached the documents to reproduce it. I didn't include them before,
because I expected someone to tell me something like read you're doing it
wrong, FAQ #213456 for the solution, and thus pointing me to a solution
that actually works.

Regards,
Brian

When I copy&paste-special a range of cells with link option, LibreOffice
creates an external reference like
'file:///path/document.ods'#%SheetX.$A$1:$F$9 as an array formula. Same
when I use the mouse pointer to mark a reference in another spreadsheet
window.
Apache OpenOffice still creates DDE links from the paste-special
operation and file:/// links from the pointer operation.

A valid DDE link looks like this:
=DDE("soffice","C:\PATH\document.ods";$SheetX.$A$1:$F$9)
The path-name is in system notation and not URL notation.

I'm not getting anything like that when I try. I'll try with a new user
account. Maybe there's something wrong with a configuration file. Then I'll
try a few other things. Now that I know what a good link looks like.

Thanks!

I may be back for more help. If these things don't work and a clean install
on a different PC doesn't either. Now at least I can diagnose the condition.