Chapter 4: Working with Excel Ranges and Tables
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➪ Define Name. Excel displays the New Name dialog box, shown in Figure 4.13. Note that
this is a resizable dialog box. Click and drag a border to change the dimensions.
FIGURE 4.13
Create names for cells or ranges by using the New Name dialog box.
Type a name in the Name text field (or use the name that Excel proposes, if any). The
selected cell or range address appears in the Refers To text field. Use the Scope drop-down
list to indicate the scope for the name. The scope indicates where the name will be valid,
and it’s either the entire workbook or the worksheet in which the name is defined. If you
like, you can add a comment that describes the named range or cell. Click OK to add the
name to your workbook and close the dialog box.
Using the Create Names from Selection dialog box
You may have a worksheet that contains text that you want to use for names for adjacent
cells or ranges. For example, you may want to use the text in column A to create names for
the corresponding values in column B. Excel makes this task easy.
To create names by using adjacent text, start by selecting the name text and the cells that
you want to name. (These items can be individual cells or ranges of cells.) The names must
be adjacent to the cells that you’re naming. (A multiple selection is allowed.) Then choose
Formulas ➪ Defined Names ➪ Create from Selection. Excel displays the Create Names from
Selection dialog box, shown in Figure 4.14.
The check marks in the Create Names from Selection dialog box are based on Excel’s analy-
sis of the selected range. For example, if Excel finds text in the first row of the selection,
it proposes that you create names based on the top row. If Excel didn’t guess correctly,
you can change the check boxes. Click OK, and Excel creates the names. Using the data in
Figure 4.14, Excel creates the seven named ranges shown in Figure 4.15.