Are Excel Linked Paths Relative or Absolute? – Understanding Excel Paths

Sorry if I asked too many clarifications. I am used to answering a question and then being told they meant to ask something different.

Try this:

Option Explicit
Sub ReadFilesInSequence()

  Dim FileName As String
  Dim FileNumber As Long
  Dim PathCrnt As String
  Dim RowDestCrnt As Long
  Dim SheetDest As String
  Dim TgtValue As String
  Dim WBookSrc As Workbook

  PathCrnt = ActiveWorkbook.Path & "\AlanSE"

  SheetDest = "AlanSE"
  RowDestCrnt = 1

  With Worksheets(SheetDest)
    ' Delete current contents of destination sheet
    .Cells.EntireRow.Delete
  End With

  FileNumber = 1

  Do While True

    FileName = Dir$(PathCrnt & "\" & FileNumber & ".xls")
    If FileName = "" Then
      ' File does not exist
      Exit Do
    End If

    Set WBookSrc = Workbooks.Open(PathCrnt & "\" & FileName)
    With WBookSrc.Worksheets("Sheet1")
      TgtValue = .Cells(1, "A").Value
    End With
    WBookSrc.Close SaveChanges:=False
    With Worksheets(SheetDest)
      .Cells(RowDestCrnt, "A").Value = FileName
      .Cells(RowDestCrnt, "B").Value = TgtValue
    End With
    RowDestCrnt = RowDestCrnt + 1

    FileNumber = FileNumber + 1

  Loop

End Sub

I hope I have added enough explanations. Ask if you need more.

Depending on the volume of the data you are copying, this may not be a viable option but...

You could copy the formula text for all of the linked cell without the equals sign with minimal slowdown and, once everything is in place, use CONCATENATE or search and replace to add the equals sign to the beginning of all of those text strings then let it crank out all of those links at once.

Let's say all of the data is in a range adjacent to "NamedCellNumberOne" You could paste "C:\Some folder\someworkbook.xlsm'NamedCellNumberOne" in the first cell then drag the corner of the cursor to "fill series" as needed. Once that is done, search all instances of "C:\Some folder\" and replace them with "=C:\Some folder\" to create all the formulas at once.