I have the following use case:
Two Excel documents are stored in the same folder on a shared drive (a typical SMB Share). The workbooks are linked through a single linked cell. If you open both workbooks in the Excel client application and update the source cell, the destination cell is updated immediately. I would like to copy these workbooks to SharePoint library and maintain the linked cell functionality. There is no need for linked cells to work in Excel services.
In my testing, in SharePoint 2010, if you open both workbooks via HTTP by browsing to the library and selecting "Edit in Excel" from each workbooks context menu the links work because they refer to the relative locations of the workbook. If you open the folder in Explorer View (webdav), then open both workbooks the links are changed to absolute references and they stop updating in real time. The links will only update when you open the workbook. Once the links have been changed to absolute paths, they will not update in real time even if the documents are opened via HTTP.
On SharePoint 2013 the situation appears to change with the presence of One Drive for Business. If the library is included in One Drive, when you click open in Explorer it opens the local copy of the file (ex: %USERPROFILE%\SharePoint\Site - Excel Test\Book1.xlsx) and the links continue to work.
Can others confirm or deny this behavior in their environments? Can someone provide insight into the behavior or point me to a Microsoft resource that documents this behavior? I have seen the articles from Microsoft on Excel Services and Linked Workbooks however; I am opening the documents in the client application, not Excel services.
