Excel 2010 Bible

Chapter 4: Working with Cells and Ranges

91

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 a particular sheet. 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 Name box ........................................................................................

A faster way to create a name is to use the Name box (to the left of the Formula bar). Select the cell

or range to name, click the Name box, and type the name. Press Enter to create the name. (You

must press Enter to actually record the name; if you type a name and then click in the worksheet,

Excel doesn’t create the name.) If a name already exists, you can’t use the Name box to change the

range to which that name refers. Attempting to do so simply selects the range.

The Name box is a drop-down list and shows all names in the workbook. To choose a named cell

or range, click the Name box and choose the name. The name appears in the Name box, and Excel

selects the named cell or range in the worksheet.

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 corre-

sponding values in column B. Excel makes this task easy to do.

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 this dialog box are based on Excel’s analysis of the

selected range. For example, if Excel finds text in the first row of the selection, it proposes that you