Naming Spreadsheet Areas

Calc lets you name sections of your spreadsheet to make those areas more meaningful. For example, you can select a column of first quarter sales numbers and name that area "Q1Sales".

This is a useful feature for a couple of reasons. When you name areas in Calc, you can jump to those areas quickly in the spreadsheet, either from the Navigator window or from the drop-down list in the formula bar, as shown in Figure 22-11. You can also include names in formulas rather than cell ranges, making formulas more meaningful. The following example illustrates this:

=SUM(B6:B9) can be written as =SUM(Q1Sales)

Figure 22-11. Jumping to named areas of a spreadsheet

You can name ranges individually, or select multiple rows and columns and create multiple named areas automatically with one procedure.

Naming a Single Region

1. Select the region you want to name.

2. Choose Insert > Names > Define.

3. In the Define Names window, type the name of the named area in the top box, as shown in Figure 22-12.

   Figure 22-12. Defining a named region

   

4. Click OK.

If you want to name more than one region, you can keep the Define Names window open by clicking Add instead of OK in step 3. You can then enter another name, click the Shrink button to select a new region in the spreadsheet, click Shrink again, and click Add.

Naming Multiple Regions Automatically

You can select a big area of a spreadsheet that contains multiple regions you'd like to name, then use this procedure to create multiple named areas out of the big area. When you use this procedure, Calc creates names for regions based on column and/or row headings in the selected area. An example is shown in Figure 22-13, followed by steps.

1. Select the area containing all the regions you want to name.

2. Choose Insert > Names > Create.

3. In the Create Names window, select the naming options you want. See Figure 22-13.

4. Click OK.

Figure 22-13. Creating multiple named regions with one procedure

Deleting Area Names

You can delete the name assignments you've given to areas. Deleting names doesn't affect the data areas they were assigned to. However, if you delete the names of areas you've used in formulas (such as =sum(Q1) ), the formulas will no longer work. Also, if you delete a name that was used to create a hyperlink to the area by dragging from Navigator, the hyperlink will no longer work.

1. Choose Insert > Names > Define.

2. In the Define Names window, select a name you want to delete, and click the Delete button.

3. Click Yes in the confirmation window.

4. Click OK.