Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates (2020)

Re:Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreadi... by magicalhippo on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @09:58AM (#31002830)

While I'm at it... One thing I find annoying in Excel is that it's rather tedious to reference an absolute cell ($B$2) vs a relative cell (C3), especially when I need to reference a handful of each.

The way I work, it would have been better to mark a cell itself as being a "constant" or "input parameter", so that when I reference the cell it is treated as an absolute reference when pasting.

That is, if I reference cell B2 in a formula and paste that formula in a different cell, it is B2 itself that determines if it's a relative or absolute reference, not the way I typed it in the formula.

It's not a huge deal, but it would be one of those nice things that makes life more enjoyable.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreadi... by dotancohen on Wednesday April 13, 2022 @01:49AM (#31011582)

Would it not be tedious to mark each cell as constant or input parameter? Perhaps it would be preferable to just ask the fine user when copying a cell with a formula?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreadi... by magicalhippo on Wednesday April 13, 2022 @09:27AM (#31014395)

I almost always have <5 such cells in a sheet, typically just 2-3, so I don't think it would be that tedious given you only have to set that once.

In comparison, I often have formulas with over 20 cell references and/or multiple formulas referencing the "constants", so getting asked for each would indeed be tedious.

[ Parent | on HN ]