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Cell References & Data Entry
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High Yield·5/6 papers · 2 years
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By the end of this lesson, you'll solve:

"Your teacher wants a neatly formatted mark sheet. Can you enter 30 students' data quickly and make it look professional with the right colours and borders?"

What is a Spreadsheet Cell?

Picture this: a spreadsheet is like a huge notebook with thousands of small boxes arranged in rows (numbered 1, 2, 3...) and columns (lettered A, B, C...). Each box is called a CELL. The address of a cell is its column letter + row number. So the cell in column A, row 1 is called A1, the one in column B row 2 is B2, and so on.

Click a cell to see its referenceABCD1A1B1C1D12A2B2C2D23A3B3C3D34A4B4C4D4No cell selected

In Excel, columns are letters (A, B, C...) and rows are numbers (1, 2, 3...)

Key Points

  • 1
    Columns go left-to-right: A, B, C, D... Z, AA, AB...
  • 2
    Rows go top-to-bottom: 1, 2, 3, 4...
  • 3
    Cell address = Column letter + Row number (e.g., C5, G10)
  • 4
    The active cell shows its address in the Name Box (top-left corner)
  • 5
    Click any cell to select it; the column letter and row number both highlight in the header

Pro Tip

Think of it like a seat number in a cinema hall: Row 5, Seat C = C5. Column letter always comes first!

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