what do you use macros for and how do you create them?

Hi Charlotte, Thanks for your post, Macros are used to complete repetitive tasks. They are a 'recording' of your key strokes and mouse movements, and will faithfully replay the recording when requested. To create a macro go to Tools, Macros, Record New Macro. Complete the box as necessary and press OK - as soon as you press OK you are recording and will be until you switch off the recording by pressing the blue square Stop Recording button. Be aware of the switch for Relative/Absolute Referencing to ensure the macro does not follow the same path each time you use it.

Thanks for the answer. However what does Relative/Absolute Referencing mean exactely?

Hi Charlotte, To put it in a rather large nutshell, Relative referencing is when Excel is free to follow the pattern (of the original formula) when the Fill handle is used to copy the formula. Absolute referencing can be easily recognised by the $ dollar signs which preceed either the column or row identifier, or both and is used to create a partial or total reference where a particular cell (or column or row). So if a Macro is using Absolute references it will always run in the original cells (used to create the formula), not where you might require it to run if it was referencing the cells in a Relative manner. Hope that helps.