Beginning OpenOffice Calc: From Setting Up Simple Spreadsheets to Business Forecasting

Relative Addressing

The type of addressing used in the example in the previous section is called “relative,” because of the way OpenOffice.org Calc treats such addresses when you decide to copy or move the cells.

When you use relative addressing, OpenOffice.org Calc will update the references to point to the cells located within the same relative distance (“two cells to the left, one cell up”) to the relocated cells. How does it work in practice? Suppose you have a simple formula like =A1 in cell B1. When you copy that formula from cell B1 to C1, OpenOffice.org Calc will automatically change it from =A1 to =B1.

Any time you see an address made up of letters and digits only (e.g., A1), it is a relative address.