Using formulas in Excel can be less than intuitive for some people. Explaining the difference between relative and absolute references becomes clear when your trainee can see the effects of each ...

For instance, if you have a profit loss of -500, to get the absolute value, you would type: =ABS(-500) The function will return 500, disregarding the negative sign.

Cells in Excel are referred to using relative or absolute references. A formula with relative references changes when the cell's position does. If, for example, a cell has a formula "=A1" and you ...