Microsoft KB Archive/269866

= Columns and rows are labeled numerically in Excel =

Article ID: 269866

Article Last Modified on 1/27/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office Excel 2003
 * Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 2004 for Mac
 * Microsoft Excel X for Mac
 * Microsoft Excel 2001 for Mac
 * Microsoft Excel 98 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q269866



SYMPTOMS
Your column labels are numeric rather than alphabetic. For example, instead of seeing A, B, and C at the top of your worksheet columns, you see 1, 2, 3, and so on.



CAUSE
This behavior occurs when the R1C1 reference style check box is selected in the Options dialog box.



RESOLUTION
To change this behavior, follow these steps:
 * 1) Start Microsoft Excel.
 * 2) On the Tools menu, click Options.
 * 3) Click the General tab.
 * 4) Under Settings, click to clear the R1C1 reference style check box (upper-left corner), and then click OK.

If you select the R1C1 reference style check box, Excel changes the reference style of both row and column headings, and cell references from the A1 style to the R1C1 style.



The A1 Reference Style
By default, Excel uses the A1 reference style, which refers to columns as letters (A through IV, for a total of 256 columns), and refers to rows as numbers (1 through 65,536). These letters and numbers are called row and column headings. To refer to a cell, type the column letter followed by the row number. For example, D50 refers to the cell at the intersection of column D and row 50. To refer to a range of cells, type the reference for the cell that is in the upper-left corner of the range, type a colon, and then type the reference to the cell that is in the lower-right corner of the range.

The R1C1 Reference Style
Excel can also use the R1C1 reference style, in which both the rows and the columns on the worksheet are numbered. The R1C1 reference style is useful if you want to compute row and column positions in macros. In the R1C1 style, Excel indicates the location of a cell with an &quot;R&quot; followed by a row number and a &quot;C&quot; followed by a column number.

