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Change cell reference in formulas to range names in Excel

Author Kelly Last modified

In Excel, if you define names for cell references before creating formulas, those names will automatically replace cell references in your formulas. However, if you create formulas first and then define names for the cell references, the names will not automatically update in your existing formulas. To quickly replace cell references with their defined names in formulas, follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to the Defined Names group under the Formulas Tab.

Step 2: Click the arrow button beside the Define Name button, and select the Apply Names item from the drop-down list.

select the Apply Names item from Define Name command

Step 3: In the Apply Names dialog box, select the range names that you will apply to formulas, and click the OK button.

select the range names to apply to formulas in the dialog box

Then you will see corresponding cell references in formulas are changed to their defined names, such as the following table shows:

Formulas with Cell Reference

Formulas with Names

=AVERAGE(A20:D26)

=AVERAGE(testav)
Note: you can select multiple names in the Apply Names dialog box. The selected names will take the place of corresponding cell references in any formulas that with them.

Click to learn how to replace range names with cell references in formulas in Excel 2007/2010.

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