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How to anchoring formula cells (change cell reference to absolute) in Excel?

Author Siluvia Last modified

Normally, when you create a formula, the cell references are relative, so the calculating result will be changed automatically when you copy and paste them to another location. For anchoring the formula cells to make the result constant, you need to change the cell reference to absolute in formulas. The following two methods will show you how to deal with it.

Anchoring cells (change cell reference to absolute) with pressing the F4 key
Mass anchoring cells (change cell reference to absolute) with Kutools for Excel

Anchoring cells (change cell reference to absolute) with pressing the F4 key

You can change cell reference of formula to absolute with pressing the F4 key. Please do as follows.

1. Double click the formula cell to get into the editing mode.

2. Click on a cell reference and then press the F4 key until the $ marks are displayed before both the row number and column number. See screenshot:

F4 key to toggle to absolute reference

2. Keep selecting the other cell reference in current formula cell and repeat the step 2 until all cell references are changed to absolute.

Mass anchoring cells (change cell reference to absolute) with Kutools for Excel

If you want to anchor all selected formula cells at once, you can try the Convert Refers utility of Kutools for Excel.

Kutools for Excel offers over 300 advanced features to streamline complex tasks, boosting creativity and efficiency. Itegarate with AI capabilities, Kutools automates tasks with precision, making data management effortless. Detailed information of Kutools for Excel...         Free trial...

1. Select the formula cells you need to change all referenced cells to absolute, then click Kutools > More > Convert Refers.

click Convert Refers feature of kutools

2. In the Convert Formula References dialog box, select the To absolute option, and then click the OK button.

select the To absolute option in the dialog box

Then all referenced cells in selected formulas are converted to absolute immediately.

  If you want to have a free trial (30-day) of this utility, please click to download it, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.

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