How to Name a Large Range of Non-Contiguous Cells in Excel

A client asked for my help on this problem. How to create a Named Range in Excel for Non-Contiguous Cells. The problem is that Excel puts a 255 character limit on the “Refers to” portion of a Named Range. I struggled with this until I found the answer in one of my favorite resource books, “This isn’t s Excel, it’s Magic!” written by Microsoft MVP (Most Valued Professional) Bob Umlas.

Solve the Problem

  1. Select the non-contiguous cells that you want to name.
  2. Open up the Visual Basic Environment (Alt + F11 is a Keyboard Shortcut).
  3. In the VBE, open up the “Immediate Pane” – Ctrl + G is the Keyboard Shortcut.
  4. Finally, type Selection.Name = “MyLabels” in the Immediate Pane and press Enter. (Substitute the name you want for “MyLabels”).

When you return to Excel, you will see that you can use the Drop-down list in the Name Box or in the Excel 2007 Name Manager to select this range.

 Amazing! Thanks Bob!

Additional  tips

  • Keyboard Shortcut F5 to open up the “Go To” Dialog Box. Select “Special” and choose “Constants – Text” to select the non-contiguous Labels that you want to name.
  • Right-click the worksheet tab and select “View Code” top open up the VBE (Visual Basic Environment) window.

I invite you to watch and subscribe to my Video Podcast on iTunes – follow this link to “Danny Rocks Tips and Timesavers”

Click here to watch this video in High Definition, Full Screen Mode on my YouTube Channel – Danny Rocks Excels

Learn How to “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!”

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How to Trigger a Unique List of Values Based Upon Another Drop-Down List in Excel

You can use the INDIRECT() Function in Excel to create a drop-down list of unique values that is“triggered” by the label that you select in another drop-down list. In the scenario that I use in this lesson:

  1. Create your 1st Drop-down list using Data Validation in Excel – Allow “List.” Here the named range is “Departments.”
  2. Create a 2nd Drop-down list using Data Validation. This time the “list” uses the INDIRECT Function to reference the selected label from the 1st drop-down list.

Key Concept

 The labels in my 1st drop-down list serve as “named range” references. That is why the INDIRECT Function is able to pull up the correct list of “Job Titles” in the 2nd Drop-down list. For example, a reference to the text label “Sales” in the 1st drop-down list brings up a list of the values (Job Titles) from the “Named Range” (Sales) in the 2nd Drop-down list.

If you need to learn about – or review – Data Validation in Excel, follow this link to my free Excel video lesson on this topic.

Create Named Ranges in Excel

I have found that creating and using “Named Cell Range” references makes lookup functions and formulas so much easier in Excel. Watch this video to see how I use a variety of methods to Create Named Ranges in Excel. One tip is to use the Keyboard Shortcut “Ctrl + Shift + F3” – after you first select the Label and the Values for your Named Range.

In this lesson, I also demonstrate how to visually “flag” all of the cells that do not meet the criteria for your Data Validation. I find that most people are unaware that you can do this! I think that you will find many uses for this auditing tool as you work in Excel.

Additional Resources

Follow this link to watch this video on YouTube in High Definition, Full Screen Mode.

Here is the link to view the 2nd video in this series about the INDIRECT Function in Excel.

Learn how to “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!” – visit my new, secure shopping site – http://shop.thecompanyrocks.com

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