Disabling automatic formula arguments

[Kevin Burton]

I have lived with this too long now. When I insert a formula into a cell the
calculation is taken literally as I typed it. But if I want to apply this
same formula to alot of cells I either cut and past or drag the cell contents
to the cells that I wish to apply the formula to. Excel tries to modify the
arguments assuming that the arguments that I used in the formula are
relative. But I frequently run into the situation where part of the formula
is a constant and I don't want Excel to modify the row or column that is used
just take the row and column as a constant. For example right now I define a
cell function as =POISSON(A1,A32,TRUE). If I copy this formula to another
cell the first argument (the x value) is modified to say A2. This is OK. But
the problem is that the second argument (A32) is changed to A33 and that
should be constant. So instead of =POISSON(A2,A32,TRUE) I get
==POISSON(A2,A33,TRUE) etc. How can I disable this automatic argument
adjustment?

Thank you.

Kevin

 

[Dave Peterson]

You could use an absolute address:

=POISSON(A1,$A$32,TRUE)

The $ "fixes" that portion of the address so it won't adjust when the formula is
copied to other cells.