OpenOffice Calc formula question

Bigun · Advocate Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 2196

Ok... I'm making a spreadsheet that is about 65 rows by 4 columns... and without writting a special formula for each and every cell, is there anyway to do the following:

Like say I was working on row 4. On that row I have columns A,B,C, and D. Now, if I wanted to multiply B4 by D4 and have A4 be the result. That wouldn't be too big a deal except I would have to rewrite the formula 64 times for each row! Is there a simpler way to make just 1 formula and copy and paste it to each cell so that the math will work with that row only?
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hjnenc · Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2004 8:50 pm Post subject:

Hmm, maybe I did not fully understand what you want to do. But copy paste just works as expected. If you have the formula "=B4*D4" in cell A4, you can copy and past it to, say, cell A7 and if you look into that cell you will see "=B7*D7". On copy and paste operations the relative positions of cells are preserved.

There is also a way to refer to absolute cells in formulas. If you want for instance in A5 the formula "=B5*D4" and in A6 the formula "=B6*D4" you could write "=B4*D$4" to A4 and copy/paste that to A5 and A6. The "$" indicates an absolute position. (Its also possible to write $D4 or $D$4 do you guess the meaning of those?)

One more tip: the fastest method to do the copy/paste operation is to select cell A4. You will see a small black square at the lower right of the cell. Grab it with the mouse and drag it to A65. This will give you a copy of A4 in A5 .. A65!