Numbers - name for cell

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Numbers - name for cell

Has anyone figured a way to assign a name to a cell? I am looking to abandon Excel, but not being able to name a cell is a fatal flaw. Simple example: In managing my family's finances, I have 3 columns (stock symbol) (date) (share value). I would like to label the cell in the third column "AAPLvalue" so I can use it in many places to calculate the value of Apple stock in various accounts. Then, when I update the date and value, all references to "AAPLvalue" will calculate the account holding's Apple total for that account on that account's table. Is this hard? Am I stuck in Excel lingo land? I can't find how to do it in Numbers.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 20, 2020 7:27 PM

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Answer 1

Barry

Level 9

59,951 points

Jan 20, 2020 9:55 PM in response to formerFatMacUser

It's not difficult, but it is global, and, unfortunately, it works in the opposite direction to what yo want.

Cells in Numbers spreadsheets can be 'named' using the values in the column and row header cells, as seen in the example above.

Doing so requires checking the bottom box shown in Numbers Preferences, below:

Personally,I'm old-school enough to find that style annoying rather than useful, so I keep that preference setting turned off.

YMMV, of course, and my opinion might vary as well if the setting could be assigned to specific cells or columns, rather than to ALL cells in ALL tables in ALL Numbers documents.

Reconsidering the question though, Is this really a "fatal" flaw?

I can see a need to have a specific cell to reference any time a particular value is needed, and a need to know how to address that specific cell, but I don't see the need for that cell to have a name.

I suspect the task could be easily completed using a lookup table and one of the lookup functions.

Regards,

Barry

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Numbers - name for cell

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