subject: Using The Conventional Cell Addressing And R1C1 Reference Style [print this page] Excel uses numbers to count the rows and letters to identify the columns. As a result, many users following this reference style With this cell naming method, it easy to differentiate the rows and column, and it enable the user to reference a cell by short cell addresses like A11, B12, H99, and so on.
By default, Excel uses this method for addressing a cell. However, Excel also introduce another method to reference a cell, which is called R1C1 reference style. This style is suitable to those users who prefer to reference both the columns and rows with numbers. This is because in R1C1 style, columns and rows are both identified with numbers. For example, cell address A11 is reference as R11C1, as if you are reading it as Row 10, Column 1. The letters R is referring to row, while C is relating to column.
You may notice that the order of R1C1 reference style is reversed from the conventional cell addressing. That could be the reason R1C1 addressing is not common as compared to the default reference style. It becomes useful though if one need to deal with worksheets that have more than 26 columns. For standard cell addressing, Excel runs out of letters after column 26, since the columns are referenced from A to Z. So, it starts using two letters as in AA, AB, AC, AD and so on to address the columns. This approach can become somewhat complicated and confusing. For instance, you are not able to quickly tell the number of column if a cell is referenced as AX1. On the other hand, if you are using R1C1 addressing method, AX1 is referenced as R1C50, which obviously tells you a clearer hint of the location of the cell.
To customize the Excel to use R1C1 for a worksheet, select File then Options from the menu. The Excel Options window will be shown, which allow you to change many settings and configuration. In the list on the left, choose Formulas then, look under the "Working with formulas" heading, and select or check the "R1C1 reference style" checkbox.
The R1C1 setting is a workbook specific configuration. So if you saved your workbook with R1C1 style and share that Excel file with someone, the person will see the R1C1 cell addresses when he or she open the file, regardless of what type of cell addressing they use in their own Excel application. However, If you are not familiar with the reference style, you can always change the cell addressing setting at any time using the Excel Options window to the style you preferred.
