title: Excel COUNTIF with link to another workbook
body: <p>I am trying to get the count of records from a sheet in a different workbook. I'm using the following formula:</p>
  
  <pre><code>=COUNTIF('C:\Path\To\File\[WORK1.xlsm]SheetName'!$A:$A,"*")-1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><code>NOTE: The file is an xlsM. It has a header row, that's why I'm subtracting 1</code></p>
  
  <p>If I have the WORK1.XLSM file open at the same time as my 'Summary' workbook, then the numbers populate and are correct. Once I close WORK1, I get <code>#VALUE</code> in the cell. </p>
  
  <p>So 2 questions:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Is there a reason this won't work?</p></li>
  <li><p>Is there a better way to write this?</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Thanks for your consideration.</p>