You are most welcome. I added a post on my weblog that recommends both your and Charles’ software programs.

Best regards,
Kevin

Yes, they have their uses. VBA refs are particularly helpful. I typically recommend prequalifying those names with “VBA_”. It’s nice to know at a glance which ones are being used in code.

However, I see at least 3 warnings that should be issued when recommending named ranges.

Prolific use of defined range names in formulas “may” (or for accountants, “will likely”) lead to:

* More complicated auditing
* Can breed unwanted external links and ghost links
* Can limit or in some cases even disable formulas when names become too long (as you know, there’s a limit to how long a cell formula can be)

…other than that, yeah they’re great use em if you like.

Personally, I don’t find myself using a lot of them. Especially when it comes to straight formula references. I’m not saying I NEVER use them. I might use 5-10 at most for cell formula refs in a model. But to see like 50 or more in a model (for formula reference) would be too much in my opinion. More commonly I’m using them mostly for VBA references.

There are some auditing benefits to using range refs. Those who follow the convention of using same columns from sheet-to-sheet for same years understand the benefit better than most. Knowing whether the cell is above/below a formula cell can be helpful. For auditing sometimes it’s even helpful to just know the data is reading from a certain sheet. These things are masked by defined names.

I’ve debated the topic too often to want to post repeatedly on the topic again so this is going to be my only commentary.

You all can have the last word…

Regards,
Aaron

I saw your link. Thanks. I will give the english version a try.

Charlie

Could you point me to the discussion you refer to?

On the Conclusion page I added a link to a downloadpage where you can get the XLM helpfile.

Nice article. I have one observation and one question.

Observation: A dynamic named range created using the OFFSET function will not work with certain other Excel functions. Example the INDIRECT function. In a thread I created on this blog with Dick K. we learned that this was true and how OFFSET works. I also found with further testing that a dynamic named range using the OFFSET function that is being used as link between two files will not work unless both files are open.

Question: Do you some reference to the GET. functions? I can’t find references on how GET works. It sounds powerfull and I would like to use more of it. Maybe some one has a reference to another web site or thier own site to explain the meaning of the GET. functions.

Thank you.

Charlie III

In my part of the world it’s called system-documentation

BTW, well done Jan Karl!

Kind regards,
Dennis

While I don’t know everything there is to know, even about named ranges, I know what I need to know for now and if something comes up I don’t know, I will take a few minutes to find out. That is why sites like this one are so invaluable and greatly appreciated.

The phrase ‘comfort zone’ should be striken from an employees lexicon. Knowledge is just too easy to acquire now for ignorance to be anything but loser’s koolaid.