Absolute and Relative Referencing

This is usually the most dreaded and feared subject for students learning an Excel course.

Start by watching the video to the right. As most of the videos in these tutorials, it is explaining the subject in the most simple, step-by-step manner. Hopefully the concept will be clear after you watch it.

In general, absolute and relative reference deals with what happens when you copy a formula to another cell.

The default action is that when you paste a formula, the addresses of cells inside it will change in accordance to the direction of where you pasted it. This is called relative reference.
For example, if you pasted one cell downwards, the numbers of the addresses inside it will increase by one.

There are occasions when you don't want the addresses inside a formula to change when you paste it. In this cases you will use absolute reference.

Here you can read more about absolute and relative referencing.