Help!! Why cant excel identify my formula????

[lloydowens]

Okay can someone help...

I am using the formula =(Q4-Q3)/(Q362-Q3) where Q4 increases by one each time so next row in column would be =(Q5-Q3)/(Q362-Q3) followed by =(Q6-Q3)/(Q362-Q3).

I have about 50 sheets and 400 rows to this column so I would assume I could use the auto fill feature where I highlight the boxes and drag the bottom right of the box down so it automatically reproduces the formula, however, when I do this it adds a value of 1 to EACH function in the equation!! ...not just the first one I want to vary. Excel gives:

=(Q4-Q3)/(Q362-Q3)
=(Q5-Q4)/(Q363-Q4)
=(Q6-Q5)/(Q364-Q5)

Any ideas how I can get around this??????

Thanks again.

[Alex Delamain]

You need to make the references that you want to keep unchanged absolute (ie so they refer to a fixed cell rather than changing). This is done with the $ symbol put in front of the part of the reference that you want to fix

=(Q5-Q$3)/(Q$362-Q$3)