Numbers: Auto-update linked tables from master file

If this is all in one .numbers document then you should be good to go...

Based on your screenshots you can just create a table on one of your sub-worksheets and use the technique I mentioned before to 'pull in' all the categories/descriptions/whatever from the main CATEGORIES table.

In this specific case, in the new table, just set cell A3 (since you have two header rows) to:

=CATEGORIES::A

and this will pull in the entire column A from the CATEGORIES table.

You can do the same with whatever other columns you want to pull in - either selectively by adding additional =CATEGORIES:: references with the appropriate column, or if you want to pull all of columns A:G through you can cell cell A3 to:

=CATEGORIES::A:G

and that will pull columns A:G in one go.

If you want to get fancier, you can add a FILTER() to the command so that it restricts the list to those that match specific criteria. For example, if you want to create a table that pulls all the data for 'GET WELL' cards, you can say:

=FILTER(CATEGORIES::A:G,CATEGORIES::A="GET WELL","")

Now it will pull columns A through G from the CATEGORIES table where column A equals "GET WELL".

Without seeing more of your data, it's hard to answer the question, but I'll at least provide a few pointers...

First of all, a point of terminology - when you say 'Master File', do you mean a distinct spreadsheet file?, or just a 'Master' table on one sheet within a single Numbers document?

If the former, then no - you're out of luck. Numbers does not support linking across documents, so all references, formulas, calculations, etc. have to be within the same Numbers document.

If the Master table is in the same document, then you may have some options. The question is what do you want this to look like?

For example, if the Master table has, say, 100 cards/categories/descriptions listed, do you want the entire table to be replicated to each 'physical location' table? Or do you want a subset of them? How do you define which entries to copy across?

If the answer is 'all', then it's easy. On the sub-table related to any location, just set the cell A1 (or A2 if you're using table headers) to

=Master Table::A

(where 'Master Table' is the name of the Master table in this sheet. This formula will simply copy all the values from column A of 'Master Table' into this table. since it's a reference, it will dynamically update to include any newly-added entries. (Note, the 'location' table must have at least as many rows as the Master table, otherwise Numbers will throw an error since it can't copy all the data).

You can repeat this for the other columns you want to copy across (Categories, Descriptions, etc.)