Named ranges are an advanced Excel feature that you may find helpful in your formulas, pivot tables, and charts.
I recently learned about this feature, and I was shocked at how easy it is to use. Let's say, for example, you have a column of data called "State." If you plan to reference this column of data often, you can give it a named range, making referencing it in your formulas easier.
To name a range of cells, select them, and then go to the formula tab. Click "Define Name" and select "Define Name" again. In the dialogue box, type the name you want to assign to the data. For this example, we will call it State. Select "Entire Workbook" and then click OK.
Now, let's say you are creating a formula to look up the state in another tab on the worksheet (A "vkoolup" formula). Instead of keying your formula and selecting cells A2:A50, you can simply type "State." You may even notice that any predefined name ranges will appear in a list as soon as you start typing.
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Director of Education & Training