There are two ways to record a macro in Excel Video 404. Absolute reference is the default. An absolute reference always goes to the same cells to perform the macro. A relative reference records the macro in relation to the cell you’re in. If the macro goes three cells to the right to type something in cell F4, an absolute reference will go to cell F4 no matter where you are on the spreadsheet, while a relative reference will go three cells to the right of wherever you are in the spreadsheet.
There’s a place for both absolute and relative references in macros. If you always want to start at the top of the spreadsheet, you want an absolute reference to cell A1. As soon as you start moving around, you probably want to turn on relative references in the macro recorder. Stay tuned. In Excel Video 405 we’ll go back and use relative references to clean up part of the mess we made in Excel Video 403. I look forward to seeing you then.
