Re: naming question

[Peter Jay Salzman <p dirac org>]

begin Jody Goldberg <jody gnome org> 
> On Sun, Apr 14, 2002 at 11:02:28AM -0700, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> > hola,
> >
> > i'd like to be able to name cells to make formulas easier to read.
> >
> > suppose cell A1 contains 1.0 and i'd like name this cell "hbar" in
> > equations.
> >
> > 1. click on insert | name | define
> > 2. in "name" place "hbar"
> > 3. click on "expression" box, then click on cell A1.  this will place
> >    Sheet1!A1 in the expression box
> >
> > how exactly do i use this name now?   i've tried:
> >
> > hbar (gnumeric interprets this as a literal string)
> > =hbar (puts a zero in the cell)
> > "hbar" (another literal string)
> > =power(hbar,2)   (doesn't work either)
> >
> > how do i make reference to the cell whose name is "hbar"?
>
> The trick is that A1 is a relative reference.
> Use $A$1.  This was both a requested feature, and an Excel
> compatibility issue.
 
ahh.  nice!   btw, there might be a lurking problem.   like i mentioned
before, the wrong way of doing things kept changing the value of the
expression.   but across gnumeric sessions, the expressions would turn
into things like "C65535".

but the right way works perfectly.  thank you!

> You can also quickly define a name by using the naming region in the
> top left of the sheet.  Just select the region you want to name, and
> enter the name there.

doesn't seem to work for me.  the naming region contains the cell
reference, right?  so if i click on D4, the box contains "D4"?

when i click on D4 and type "fine_constant", then the expression
becomes:

fine_constant    Sheet2!D4:D4

and references to fine_constant yield #VALUE!.

which is fine.  i don't need shortcuts.  i just need to be correct.  :)
the "long way" is good enough for me!

pete