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Entering Data in Excel

By Ted French, About.com

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Cells and Cell References in Excel

The cell reference of the highlighted cellis B2

The cell reference of the highlighted cell is B2

© Ted French

Cells and cell references in Excel

Cell Facts

  • Data is stored in cells in an Excel spreadsheet.
  • Each small rectangle in a spreadsheet is a cell.
  • A cell is the intersection point of a column and a row.

Column and Row Facts

  • Columns run vertically in a spreadsheet and are identified by a letter.
  • Rows run horizontally and are identified by a number.
  • There are 65,536 rows, 256 columns, and over 16 million cells in a worksheet.

Cell Reference Facts

  • To keep track of all these cells, each cell has a cell reference or address.
  • A cell reference is a combination of the column letter and the row number.
  • The active cell reference is shown in the name box above column A.

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