MS-Excel / Excel 2003

Name That Range

At the most basic level, naming a range in Excel is no harder than selecting the range of cells (this can be a single cell, cell range, or nonadjacent cell selection), clicking the Name Box (on the same row as the Formula bar that contains the current cell address), typing a unique descriptive name for the range, and then pressing Enter.

Remember these range name conventions: All range names must begin with a letter of the alphabet, contain no spaces (use underscores, please), and not duplicate any other name in the workbook (keep those names unique).

In fact, I always name single-cell ranges or nonadjacent ranges from the Name Box on the Formula bar. You never see me taking the time to open the Define Name dialog box (Insert → Name → Define) and enter the descriptive range name there.

To quickly select a cell range or nonadjacent selection after naming it, click the drop-down button on the Name Box and then select the selection's name in the drop-down list. To print the cell selection, choose File → Print, click the Selection option button in the Print dialog box, and click OK.

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In this tutorial:

  1. Excel 2003 Using Range Names
  2. Name That Range
  3. Creating names from row and column headings
  4. Assigning range names that span different sheets
  5. Assigning Range Names to Constants
  6. Using Your Range Names in Formulas
  7. Using range names in new formulas
  8. Assigning range names to existing formulas