Tables, named ranges, line breaks, modern functions, and helper columns make Excel formulas easier to read, audit, and fix.

Cells in Excel are referred to using relative or absolute references. A formula with relative references changes when the cell's position does. If, for example, a cell has a formula "=A1" and you copy ...

In a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, you may have formulas sitting in one cell that require the information within another cell in order to calculate. These relationships are called references. When a ...

Q: My partner says there’s an F4 shortcut to creating absolute cell references in Excel formulas, but for the life of me I can’t make it work. What am I doing wrong? A: Your partner is right, but ...

Have you ever carefully crafted a formula in Excel, only to watch it unravel into chaos the moment you copy it across columns? It’s a maddening quirk of Excel tables—structured references that seem to ...

Please note: This item is from our archives and was published in 2017. It is provided for historical reference. The content may be out of date and links may no longer function. Q. I have an ...