The tool's stated (on or off) affects only the recording of future actions, not what has been already recorded. It is important that you remember to click the tool before you take an action that is recorded. Click the tool a second time, and you are back to subsequent actions being interpreted absolutely. Relative reference in Excel 2011 not working In the past couple of days, anytime I copy a formula down a column, and the formula is using relative reference, the copied cells are all the same as the original cell. Click the tool and all your subsequent actions are interpreted relative to the current selected cell. You do this by using the Relative Reference tool on the Stop Recording toolbar. If you instead want your macros to be recorded relatively (so that the macro moves down one cell instead of moving to cell B8), then you need to instruct Excel to do so. This exemplifies the default condition of the macro recorder-to record all movements and cell references absolutely. It didn't record the press of the Down Arrow key, but instead recorded the movement to cell B8. The reason this happens is that Excel memorized your absolute steps. Instead, when that line of the macro is executed, cell B8 is selected. When you later select cell E12 and play back this macro, you might expect that the macro would move down one cell, to E13, as if you had pressed the Down Arrow key. Relative ranges do not use the character. Absolute ranges have a character before the column portion of the reference and/or the row portion of the reference. Excel accepts cell references in what are called absolute and relative ranges. For instance, if you start recording while cell B7 is selected, and then you press the Down Arrow key, cell B8 is now selected. Relative And Absolute References In Formulas This page describes relative and absolute cell references in Excel formulas. A4 is a reference to the value of cell A3) or use your cursor to select a cell or range of cells. After beginning to type the formula using an equals sign, you can either type the cell label (i.e. For example, B2 refers to the cell at the intersection of column B and row 2. If you have Sheet1, Sheet2, and Sheet3, and you use this formula on Sheet3, then it returns the value of Sheet2A1. To refer to a cell, enter the column letter followed by the row number. Once you've created the PrevSheet macro, here's one way the function can be used in a cell: PrevSheet (A1) This returns the value of cell A1 from the previous worksheet. When you record your macros, Excel is very literal about recording what you do. The reference is then made for that worksheet. The recorder allows you to record your keystrokes and play them back again later. This is most handy when performing the same calculation on multiple columns or. When copying or moving, Excel will change the cell address to keep it relative to its original position. This is the way most users reference cells when working in a spreadsheet. One of the most common ways of creating a macro is to use the macro recorder built into Excel. The simplest cell reference is called a relative reference: A1.