mike, that works really well.

tested it several times and always finds the external linked workbooks:

E.g. I tested it on:

=IF(ISNA(MATCH(D11,'D:\VBATest\source files\[Specifications_Nov 06.xls]DEF'!$G$3:$G$51,0)),"",OFFSET('D:\VBATest\source files\[Specifications_Nov 06.xls]DEF'!$A$2,MATCH(D11,'D:\VBATest\source files\[Specifications_Nov 06.xls]DEF'!$G$3:$G$51,0),0))
And it pulled out:

Specifications_Nov 06.xls three times.

Is it possible, adapting this code further for this to extract separately the following parts:
  1. 'D:\VBATest\source files\ [i.e. FOLDER PATH]
  2. Specifications_Nov 06.xls (this it already does without teh square brackets)
  3. $G$3:$G$51 or '!$G$3:$G$51 (basically the next part fo the linked reference) [i.e. ADDRESS PATH]
If these parts can be parsed (number 2 already can) then it is just a matter of concatenating and doing an Workbooks.open on the first part and second part and then an Application.goto on the last part and will take care of all EXTERNAL LINKS.

Then it is a matter of adapting your earlier approach to get the first level precedents for INTERNAL LINKS.

Any further help would really be appreciated on this. Really learning a lot from you in this process!

regards,