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The Formula bar displays the cell address and the contents of the current cell. The address of this cell is determined by its column letter(s) followed immediately by the row number as in cell A1, the very first cell of each worksheet at the intersection of column A and row 1 or cell XFD1048576, the very last of each Excel 2007 worksheet, at the intersection of column XFD and row 1048576.
The contents of the current cell are determined by the type of entry you make there: text or numbers if you just enter a heading or particular value, or the nuts and bolts of a formula if you enter a calculation there.
The Formula bar is divided into three sections:
- Name box: The left-most section that displays the address of the current cell address
- Formula bar buttons: The second, middle section that appears as a rather nondescript button displaying only an indented circle on the left (used to narrow or widen the Name box) with the Insert Function button (labeled fx) on the right until you start making or editing a cell entry at which time, its Cancel (an X) and its Enter (a check mark) buttons appear in between them
- Cell contents: The third, right-most white area to the immediate right of the Insert Function button that takes up the rest of the bar and expands as necessary to display really, really long cell entries that won't fit in the normal area
 | The Cell contents section of the Formula bar is important because it always shows you the contents of the cell even when the worksheet does not (when you're dealing with a formula, Excel displays only the calculated result in the cell in the worksheet and not the formula by which that result is derived). You can edit the contents of the cell in this area at anytime. By the same token, when the Contents area is blank, you know that the cell is empty as well. |
When it comes to labeling the 16,384 columns of an Excel 2007 worksheet, our alphabet with its measly 26 letters is simply not up to the task. To make up the difference, Excel first doubles the letters in the cell's column reference so that column AA follows column Z (after which you find column AB, AC, and so on) and then triples them so that column AAA follows column ZZ (after which you get column AAB, AAC, and the like). At the end of this letter tripling, the 16,384th and last column of the worksheet ends up being XFD so that the last cell in the 1,048,576th row has the cell address XFD1048576.
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