Excel 2013 Formulas

Chapter 3: Working with Names

In This Chapter

• An overview and the advantages of using names in Excel

• The difference between workbook- and worksheet-level names

• Working with the Name Manager dialog box

• Shortcuts for creating cell and range names

• How to create names that extend across multiple worksheets

• How to perform common operations with range and cell names

• How Excel maintains cell and range names

• Potential problems that may crop up when you use names

• The secret behind names, and examples of named constants and named formulas

• Examples of advanced techniques that use names

Most intermediate and advanced Excel users are familiar with the concept of named cells or ranges. Naming cells and ranges is an excellent practice and offers several important advantages. As you'll see in this chapter, Excel supports other types of names — and the power of this concept may surprise you.

What's in a Name?

You can think of a name as an identifier for something in a workbook. This “something” can consist of a cell, a range, a chart, a shape, and so on.

Although you can give a name to any object in Excel, this chapter focuses exclusively on cell and range names (which are handled differently than other types of names).

If you provide a name for a range, you can then use that name in your formulas. For example, suppose your worksheet contains daily sales information stored ...