In the previous video, we learned the basics around creating a formula that one of the best ways to include cells or ranges as inputs to my formula. So for example, we have a very simple formula that we need to create over here, the sales value is equal to the quantity of the closing balance multiplied by the sales price. So I'm simply going to tap equals to start off a formula. Now you'll notice that if I use my arrow keys on my keyboard, that it actually moves around the spreadsheet, highlighting the cell address, I need to point to the cell which I'd like included in my formula, remembering that when we reference a cell or a range, Excel will actually look into the underlying contents within that particular cell. So although we have referenced be non excellent interprets this as the underlying number 824 I can multiply this by the sales price of path.

And if I don't want to use my keyboard to move around, I can use my mouse and simply click and that prints out the cell address be six. So as we've said, you can use your arrow keys, or you can use your mouse. Now, any of the keyboard shortcuts that we've learned previously, like Ctrl, and your arrow keys or Ctrl, Shift and your arrow keys, all of them apply equally when creating selections for your formula. If I press enter, we now see that we have a working formula. If I want this formula copied down to apply to all these different numbers, I can use my full handle. But you'll notice that we have a problem.

If I look into any of these formulas, which are clearly wrong. You'll notice something Do you notice that the blue cell reference is moving appropriately as we move down, but the red reference which starts off in cell B six, is also moving. And we don't want that to happen. And this fundamental concept is about changing the top of cell reference that we have. Now, because we never want cell pieces to ever move, we actually need to tell Excel to anchor this reference of basics down. And the way that we do that is through the use of the dollar symbol, which if you think about it kind of looks like a ship anchor.

Simply hit the f4 key. Once your cursor is somewhere within this reference of B six, hit f4 and x I will type out the dollar signs for you. And this creates an absolute reference column B. Row six will never ever move, if I'm not into and copy this all the way down. That looks much better. And you'll notice that even though the blue reference is moving, the red reference stays absolutely anchored down.

So we've learned two important principles in this video. Firstly, you can reference underlying cells using your keyboard or your mouse, and exhale looks into the underlying values of those cells. And we've also learned that we can use the dollar symbol, and specifically the f4 key as the shortcut. And it's actually easy to remember since the number four contains the dollar symbol, so just above four is the key fo we can use that to input the dollar symbols, which act as an anchor of that particular reference. And hopefully with these two initial principles, you'll be able to create basic formulas and functions which reference different cells or ranges. We'll see in the next video.