Hi JAS

As I understand it, you have an MS-Excel template that you use for a
workorder and you save each workorder you create as a separate MS-Excel
file.

Another option, not necessarily "the" option but rather "a" option, would be
to track all of your workorders in one MS-Excel file that is not a template
file but a standard MS-Excel file.  You could have two worksheets (i.e.
tabs) on the one MS-Excel file.  One worksheet would have all your
workorders.  The top row of the worksheet would have the names of the fields
you want to capture data on (e.g., work order number, customer name, etc).
Each workorder would be a new row on this worksheet.

You could then have another worksheet in the same MS-Excel file that could
have a drop-down at the top where the drop-down would show workorder numbers
(from the previously explained worksheet) and it would return the data in a
nice format for printing for your records and to give the customer a copy.

With this solution, it would be easy to see the previous workorder number
because it would be the row previous to the new row you are entering.  And,
if you wanted to, down-the-road, you could programmatically have MS-Excel
create a new row for each new workorder and automatically update the
"workorder number" column and have a "print" button next to each row.  The
ways in which you could expand and improve upon this basic solution are
numerous.

The option I presented is one of many, many different options you will have
to solve your problem.

I hope this helps.

Ron