Forum Discussion
Copying Excel spreadsheet
Hello
Have created a group form and would like to use this form as a template for different events.
Excel spreadsheet with responses is used with links and formulas in other worksheets.
How can this spreadsheet containing the formulas be used as a template to use with other forms ie trying to avoid having to recreate the other worksheets that contain the formulas.
Have tried various workaround which don't work:
1 Duplicate form / delete responses = does not delete responses from spreadsheet
2 Copy worksheet to new spreadsheet = does not work as the spreadsheet filename is part of the formula, so refers to the original spreadsheet (have tried find/replace all, but very cumbersome)
Any suggestions, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Andrea
A problem when using Forms + Excel together, especially since Forms doesn't provide native templating features or easy detachment from an existing spreadsheet.
Action you can take…
Create and save a blank response Excel sheet from the master Form
Create a formula/dashboard workbook that reads data via Power Query
For each event: duplicate the Form, get new Excel response file
Point the formula workbook to new file via Power Query
Save each event under a folder like Events/EventA/, Events/EventB/, etc.
Avoid…
Copying worksheets with links to external files → causes broken references or hardcoded filenames.
Find/Replace on external links manually → error-prone and not scalable.
Using Forms connected directly to your formula workbook → risky, as structure changes can break formulas.
Hope this information helps you a little.
2 Replies
Thank you
The Power Query work around worked. Thanks for the advice.
A problem when using Forms + Excel together, especially since Forms doesn't provide native templating features or easy detachment from an existing spreadsheet.
Action you can take…
Create and save a blank response Excel sheet from the master Form
Create a formula/dashboard workbook that reads data via Power Query
For each event: duplicate the Form, get new Excel response file
Point the formula workbook to new file via Power Query
Save each event under a folder like Events/EventA/, Events/EventB/, etc.
Avoid…
Copying worksheets with links to external files → causes broken references or hardcoded filenames.
Find/Replace on external links manually → error-prone and not scalable.
Using Forms connected directly to your formula workbook → risky, as structure changes can break formulas.
Hope this information helps you a little.
