It is possible to create a lookup from one workbook to another. Let’s say you have a list on one workbook and you want this to appear as a list on a second workbook, here’s how you can do it.
Get the List from the Source Workbook
Firstly get the ID section of the URL for the workbook of which you want to lookup, i.e. the highlighted bit.
Now you need to get the name of the sheet within that workbook, in my case its called “Information Assets”, then you just need to include the range, in my case this is $A$3:$A, or the whole of the A column starting from row 3.
With that you can create the following equation:
=IMPORTRANGE("12IsCwjWyv9CvnRecTEsCwM7CjxbI9o_s3cxx","Information Assets!$A$3:$A")On your destination workbook create another sheet which will be used as your Tables, Legend or Resource sheet.
Within this new sheet, click on a cell and paste in the equation above. You may then be asked to “Link” the workbooks together, after a few seconds you should see the list and cell information from the other workbook updated in this sheet.
These sheets are now linked. If you add something to that column in the source workbook, this list within the destination workbook will be updated automatically.
Make Use of the List
Click on the Cell you want to make use of this list, select “Data”->”Data Validation”, then enter the reference to the whole of the imported range:
Click “Save”, you should now have a drop down list containing the items imported from the other workbook via your intermediate worksheet.
