I don't see this capability in Org, but maybe I'm missing it. My use case is that I setup an Org file as my phonebook. Each child header (ie. no subheaders) is a person in my phonebook. I can categorize them using parent headers. All information about a person is stored in PROPERTY drawers (but, you could have information outside the drawer).
What I'd like to do is include a "reference" to a PROPERTY in the phonebook entry in other Org files so that phone and address is stored in the phonebook, but I want the "reference" to become the value of the PROPERTY when the other Org file is exported. I could do a link to the phonebook Org file, but that is a link and not the data. I'd prefer to have (say) an exported PDF be standalone and not have references to the other file that I would also have to export. One reason is that I might have "confidential" information in the phonebook. Does this make sense? Has it been done? -- David Masterson