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Understanding Workbooks and Worksheets

A workbook is the Microsoft Excel file that stores your data. A workbook can contain many worksheets, which you use to enter and work with your data. You can enter and display data in multiple worksheets in a workbook, and perform calculations using data found across all the different worksheets.

Worksheets are composed of cells, active areas in which you input data or formulas for calculation. Cells are aligned along columns, labeled with the letters A through IV, and rows, labeled with the numbers 1 through 65536.

When a cell is selected, its location appears in the name box, located to the left of the formula bar.

In Excel, this location is called a reference, and is used to point to values you want to use in a formula. References let you calculate data contained in different parts of your workbook, or in different workbooks altogether.

References are indicated using the cell's column and row headings. Cell B2, shown in the name box above, refers to the cell in column B, row 2.