what is the importance of this?

They are used when you do not want the reference of a field to change even when you drag down a formula or copy it to another cell. For example:

=SUM(C9+G12)

If you drag this formula down to the cell below it will change to the following formula:

=SUM(C10+G13)

It will automatically add one. A, absolute cell reference stops this automatic incrementation. If you put an absolute cell reference as follows:

=SUM(C9+$G$12)

This will continue to increment the C9 part but the G12 field will always be the same.

Hi Cynthia,

Thanks for the question.

Absolute referencing is where you fix the cell reference. It means when you use the Autofill or "copy down" the formula the references in your formula stay the same. It can be done by clicking into the formula and pressing function key 4 (F4). For example A1 would change to $A$1.

I hope this helps

Tracy