This week’s hint and tip is about how to make a cell reference absolute in Excel and how to use them in your spreadsheets. This is on our Basic Excel training course and it covers the different ways in which you can create them. We are going to go through it now below.

What are they?

In an Excel spreadsheet (technical name – worksheet) there are many cell references that are used in calculations and formulas. A cell reference is created where a column and row intersect. For example, in the cell that intersects column A and row 4 will have the cell reference of A4.

When you then create formulas and calculations in Excel, you use these cell references to build them up. Therefore when you copy the calculation or formula, it will be copied relative to the row or column that it is copied in to. In this example, this is called relative copying. However, there will be some instances where you will want a cell to be ‘fixed’ in the formula or calculation. This is so when it is copied, that cell does not change, it remains the same within the formula or calculation. In this instance, this is called an absolute reference.

How to make a cell absolute

There are two ways to make a cell reference absolute. Firstly by using $ signs and secondly by naming cells. The video below shows you a different example of how you can use absolute references. Meanwhile, if you want to know more about absolute references and how to create them, take a look at our previous hint and tip here.

The video below shows you what an absolute reference is and how you can make a cell reference absolute in Excel. It takes you through the 3 different types of absolute references that you can have. As well as this, it shows how that makes copying your calculation into other cells easier.

Watch the video below to find out more. After that, try it out using the example spreadsheet below!

Click here to download the example spreadsheet shown in the video to try it out yourself! (It is blank so that you will have to create the calculation yourself!)

We hope you have enjoyed this hint and tip on absolute references in Excel. Why not take a look at our previous one on 365 Maps in Excel?

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You might be thinking, “hang on, they’ve spoken about maps before in Excel haven’t they?”

Well you would be right to think that as we have! However, in Excel 365 there are a few more options that you can use too from some of the older versions of Excel.

A newer feature in Excel 365 is the “maps” features which there are now a few more options to choose from.

To illustrate their possible use see the Excel spreadsheet attached here (the link will allow you to download a copy to your computer to view it).

Like charts in Excel, they can be a good way of showing geographically sales/courses/incidents etc. on a map.

We’ve chosen towns and countries but post codes are also good to use.

On our Intermediate Excel courses which we run in Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and West Midlands we incorporate more details of the newer features found on the Insert Tab in Excel.

For details on this course and others please visit our website here.

We hope you have enjoyed this hint and tip on Excel 365 maps. Why not take a look at our previous one on creating new bullet points in Word?

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In this weeks hint and tip we are going to be looking at the concept of Excel names. This concept is where you are able to name a cell or a range of cells to then use them within a formula or a calculation in an Excel spreadsheet. This is covered on our Basic Excel training course.

The video below is going to show you step by step how you would go about naming both a single cell and also a range of cells. There is also a bit of information about Data Validation within the video too!

Summary of Excel names from the video:

Naming a cell

1. Click on the cell that you want to name (in this example, G1).
2. Go to the name box above column A in your Excel spreadsheet.
3. Single click in the name box and name the cell (in this example, name it ‘increase’).
4. You can now use this named cell in your calculation.
5. To use it in your calculation, you can either click on the cell and it will put the name in to your calculation or you can type the name in yourself.

Naming a range of cells

1. Select the range of cells that you want to name (in this example, A2:B6).
2. Go to the name box above column A in your Excel spreadsheet.
3. Single click in the name box and name the range of cells (in this example, ‘vlookuptable’).
4. You can now use this named range in your formula.
5. To use it in your formula, you can either go to the worksheet it is in and select the cells and it will put the name in to your formula or you can type the name in yourself.

Editing a name (cell or range)

1. To do this, go to the Formulas Tab and select the ‘Name Manager’ button. Here you can edit or delete a named cell or range.

We hope you enjoyed this hint and tip on Excel names and how you actually go about naming cells within your spreadsheets! Why not take a look at our previous one on inserting a slide into a PowerPoint presentation?

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From Farmers spouses to manufactures to Snow film set providers they all use Excel in Gloucestershire!

Excel training these days comes in all flavours and here at JPL we seek to meet a variety of needs; we have 5 ‘flavours’ of Excel on offer here at JPL!

There is the common type of training we deliver which is on site in Gloucestershire at a company’s site in a meeting room. We make good use of interactive questioning, exercises and explanation on a white board or flip chart.

As our approach is interactive based on active learning not passive learning there are no demo’s its all hands on, the attendees are doing all the exercises to practice what they learn as they go along!

Then we have the self-teach packages we’ve developed. These sit around 3 modules: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Excel. Each module covers 6 topics and includes a video, example and exercise per topic with answers. If you want to find out more about this, head on over to the page on our website here.

In addition, we also deliver bespoke training developed to the customer’s request using selected topics and sometimes their own data. This can often be a great way of getting training for your staff especially if their knowledge is mixed, so just a basic or an intermediate course wouldn’t be right but a basic/intermediate one would!

Excel training in Gloucestershire has become an integral part of our business and we look forward to developing the use of Excel in other companies in the region.

For more information on all our courses please contact us at johnlegge@jplcomputer.co.uk or on 07903 840105 we will be happy to help.

Want to know what some thought of our courses? You can head over and take a look at our customer comments here.

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We are delighted to introduce a section on introductory Excel VBA programming into our new Master Class Excel Silver training course. This session takes the scope of PowerPoint illustrations, worked examples and exercises to test out your code.

VBA

VBA is useful when an Excel standard feature or recorded macro cannot do all you want. The course is for all staff who have a good grasp of Excel and can work methodically and logically.

New courses

We now have two Master Class Excel courses named Bronze and Silver which can be taken individually or as 1 unit.

For more details please contact us on johnlegge@jplcomputer.co.uk or visit our web site www.jplcomputer.co.uk

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John has recently delivered a bespoke Excel training course to a variety of ladies in the farming/dairy/agricultural industries as part of the Faster Farmers project in Herefordshire. It was very successful with many of them planning to use the facilities in their own and family businesses to help improve their day to day running. We covered Excel formulas, formatting, sorting and filtering and a whole host of other activities. After learning the theory, exercises were tailored to be more relevant for everyone and were used to practice skills learnt in the course!

Several other courses are planned for other groups in November, December and January.

Here’s a picture of the group below after the training session.

For more details of the course contact the Herefordshire Rural Hub on admin@herefordshireruralhub.co.uk

For more details on the Faster Farmers project see www.fastershire.com/training
Some comments from the ladies on a course that was run recently can be seen below:

“Very clear explanations. Best part of the course: informal and relaxed environment”.

“Best part of the course: lots of interaction, practice on details covered helped understanding”.

“Best part of the course: very enjoyable and comfortable atmosphere excellent”.

“Best part of course: very easy to understand”.

“The best course I’ve attended! Best part of the course: going right back to the basics”.

“Best part of the course: giving me the confidence to work with Excel and look at how to solve problems”.

“Best part of the course: varied topics but covering most of what I need”.

“Best part of the course: practical aspect of the training”.

“Best part of the course: clear explanations and willingness to answer questions”.

“Best part of the course: follow up information to practice with”.

If you want to know more about the Excel courses that were run, please feel free to contact us on johnlegge@jplcomputer.co.uk or give us a call on 07903 840105

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Comments from attendees on an Master Class Training 2013 course run on their premises:

“Good presentation and pace throughout. Best part of the course: Pivot Tables and Conditional Formatting”.

“Course notes excellent, really useful. Best part of the course: John! Great teacher and very knowledgeable, very patient, nothing is a silly question!”

“Great step by step help along the way if you get stuck. Best part of the course: learning about new functions within Excel”.

“Best part of the course: visual basic work and macros”.

– Abigail, Charlotte, Matthew and Jo

If you would like more information regarding any of the Microsoft courses that we run, please check out our website.

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Comments from attendees on an Intermediate Excel Training 2016 course run on their premises:

“Best part of the course: discovering I can work smarter, quicker”.

“Excellent, fun, informative & a great trainer. Best part of the course: well structures, well explained and taught. Learning was fun”.

“It was very useful and professional. Best part of the course: positive spirit of John and the training interactive sessions”.

“Very good, course explained clearly. Best part of the course: working in a team”.

– Jo, Penny, Stefan and John

If you would like to know more information about the courses we run, please see our website. We offer lots of Microsoft training, please do get in touch.

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Comments from attendees on an Basic Excel Training 2010 course run on their premises:

“John explained the course in a very clear way. Best part of the course: learning about symbols and formulas”.

“Wished this was done long ago! Best part of the course: learning various symbols”.

“Very pleased with the training I have received. Best part of the course: learning new things and being reminded of the things I had forgotten”.

– Mark, Anup and Beki

If you would like to know more about our Excel Training, please see here for more information.

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Comments from attendees on an Advanced Excel 2013 Training course on 23rd & 27th January run on their premises:

“Best part of the course: interactive and informative”.

“Best part of the course: enjoyed the varied learning style; some listening, some doing on own, some team work, etc.”.

“Very good. Best part of the course: how easy it was to follow (made tricky things seem easy)”.

“Clear and informative. Best part of the course: finding shorter ways of finding/sorting info and Pivot Tables”.

“Clear guidance and notes. Best part of the course: Pivot Tables, Vlookup, data validation”.

“Enjoyed today’s session, really got me thinking. Best part of the course: charts, validation, Vlookup”.

– Maria, Jane, Amelia, Maegan, Debby and Nia

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