Cells in Excel are referred to using relative or absolute references. A formula with relative references changes when the cell's position does.

An Easy Way to Explain the Difference Between a Relative & an Absolute Formula in Excel. Using formulas in Excel can be less than intuitive for some people. Explaining the difference between ...

Each cell in a worksheet has a unique reference that describes its position – for example A1. In a spreadsheet, there are two types of cell reference – 'relative cell reference' and 'absolute ...

Q: My partner says there’s an F4 shortcut to creating absolute cell references in Excel formulas, but for the life of me I can’t make it work.

Microsoft Excel updates cell references when you copy an expression. Here are a couple of workarounds for those rare occasions when you don't want to change the cell references.