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

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.

How to Format Relative References in Excel. Microsoft Excel relies on two fundamental reference types when addressing other cells. Absolute references -- which are denoted with a "$" -- lock a ...

Absolute cell reference: There may be times when you do not want a cell reference to change when filling cells – for example, referring to a % price increase. Unlike relative references ...