Welcome to the First Column IT Tech Blog

HomeBlog
Tip of the Week: Name Your Spreadsheet Cells for Quick and Easy Reference

Tip of the Week: Name Your Spreadsheet Cells for Quick and Easy Reference

September 18, 2024

Spreadsheets are handy tools for businesses, although it can become pretty easy to lose track of where and what certain data is as they grow… not to mention a pain to keep referencing back to as needed.

However, there’s an easy workaround: naming the cells of your spreadsheet.

How to Name the Cells of a Spreadsheet

Here’s the thing: cells are usually named by their coordinates on the x-axis and the y-axis: B7, I16, N42, bingo. This is why you see formulas made up of a function followed by an equation using these coordinates. For instance, =SUM(A1+B2) and the like.

However, in both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, a small box to the left of the formula bar will tell you what the currently selected cell is named. It also allows you to name specific cells in a way that doesn’t change the input.

Using the name box, you can create named ranges in your spreadsheet that replace the coordinates as you create your formulas. So, let’s say you wanted to take the total of different goods or services you sell but keep track of how much each line item brought in individually. You can do just that by naming different cells with the names of your various products.

If you were selling different types of produce, apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes, you could name your cells as such and input the total sales for each. For our example, we’ll assume you sold $50 in apples, $43 in oranges, $62 in bananas, and $49 in grapes. To total this up, you could fill out a cell with:

=SUM(apples+oranges+bananas+grapes)

This would give you a result of $204.

Alternatively, you could name the collection of cells spanning from A1 to D1 “All_Fruits”, and simply use:

=SUM(All_Fruits)

This feature is under the Formulas tab under Define Name in Microsoft Excel. Google Sheets has it under the Data menu under Named ranges. 

Hopefully, this helps you organize your spreadsheets a little better.

Previous Post
April 30, 2025
How to Break the “Who Cares” Mindset
More often than not, you have an employee on staff who rolls their eyes whenever you have to send out another cybersecurity email or reminder. This “who cares” mindset is dangerous and can infect your business in a profoundly disturbing way. Today, we want to get into why this “who cares” mindset is so dangerous and what’s really at stake when you have an employee who can’t get on board with your security policies.
April 28, 2025
Learn How Resilience is Reshaping the Cybersecurity Landscape
While the goal of cybersecurity is always to prevent threats from taking advantage of your infrastructure, this is becoming more and more challenging as time wears on and threats evolve to changes in cybersecurity discourse. A recent podcast episode from Illumio, “Trust & Resilience: The New Frontlines of Cybersecurity,” explores how trust has become a vulnerability that attackers exploit in new and creative ways. How can cybersecurity as an industry pivot in response to this trend?
April 25, 2025
Everything You Need to Know About Business Tech Updates
While technology is an important part of your business, it shouldn’t be distracting you from carrying out your company’s mission. Indeed, it can be difficult to stay up-to-date on the latest practices and solutions, and it can feel impossible to keep up. While you could adopt the “good enough” policy that many businesses settle for, we think you should take a different approach—one that will make you impossible to compete with if carried out appropriately.

Have a project in mind?

Start with our free consultation for VA, DC and MD companies. We will provide a detailed proposal and firm quote based on your specific IT support needs. All at a predictable monthly cost per seat.
Free Consultation - Sign Up Here