Office 2013 In Depth

Naming Ranges

When you work with values in an Excel worksheet, they typically make up a range of cells that contain like values. For example, all the cells containing employee salaries are typically located in the same column and so constitute a contiguous range of cells. You can then use this range for a number of calculations, such as total company salary, or compute the average or the mean for the salary range.

You can select a range of values and give the range a range name. For example, the salary range discussed in the previous paragraph could be given the name “salary.” The range name could then be used directly in formulas or functions as a substitute for the range, which is specified by the beginning and ending cell addresses in the ...