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From: MJB@cup.portal.com (Martin J Brown-Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Excel v2.1 "Names" ?'s
Message-ID: <26588@cup.portal.com>
Date: 4 Feb 90 11:14:33 GMT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 40

I'm having a few problems with using "names" in Excel v2.1.
Consider the following mini spreadsheet:

         A      B      C      D
      ------------------------------
   1  |      |  Jan |  Feb |  Mar |
      ------------------------------
   2  | Rent |  700 |  700 |  700 |
      ------------------------------
   3  | Food |  60  |  55  |  75  |
      ------------------------------
   4  | Util |  28  |  33  |  45  |
      ------------------------------
   5  | Total|  768 |  788 |  820 |
      ------------------------------

I "create names" with "top" and "left", and "apply" with the default settings

This allows me to ref a cell by name, i.e., "Goto" "Jan Util" will put me at 

So far so good.

The formula for B5 could read "=SUM(B2:B4)", which gives correct results.
BUT the formula for B5 that reads "=SUM(Jan Rent:Jan Util)" does NOT give
the correct result, it returns the value of the cell to the right of the ":".
If the formula for B5 reads "=SUM(Jan Rent+Jan Food+Jan Util)" the correct
result will be given. In this case, the problem is what is the correct
format for using col and row names in range formulas.

Also, if there are no row names applied (no "rent" "food" etc.), I'm unable
to figure out how to say "Jan 4" to mean B4.

Any solutions to these problems would be most helpful.

Thanx!

                                 - MJB -

                         USNET: mjb@cup.portal.com
                           BIX: mbrown