What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

Ever encountered a situation when you are working on a spreadsheet created by someone else? Not sure about the cells being referred to in the formula?

When writing, editing, or auditing Excel formulas you will have to view and access the referenced cells within a formula argument.

In this article, we will go through the Excel formula to go to a specific cell using the following methods:

  • Go To Functionality
  • Trace Precedents
  • Trace Dependents

There is a cool tip where you can jump to the referenced cell or range within the formula and make your changes.

Excel go to cell in formula is helpful if you want to check how the formula works or to make any changes to the formula.

Go To Functionality

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

Follow the step-by-step tutorial on Excel formula to go to a specific cell with an Excel worksheet to practice along:

STEP 1: Double click inside your Excel formula

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 2:Select the formula argument that you want to edit with your mouse

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 3: Press F5 which will bring up the Go To dialogue box and press OK

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 4:This will take you to the referenced cell/range

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 5: You can select the new range with your mouse and also make any changes to the formula bar

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 6:Press Enter and your formula is updated

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

This is how you can use the go to cell in Excel!

You can even use a simpler technique to Excel jump to cell in formula using Trace Dependents and Trace Precedents in Excel.

Let’s look at these two features in detail!

Trace Precedents

Precedent cells are the cells that are referred to by a formula.

In the example below, cell F6 contains a formula that is getting value from another cell. You can use the Trace Precedents to take you to the cell from which you are getting the value.

Let’s see it can be done!

STEP 1:Select the cell F6.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 2:Go to Formulas > Trace Precedents.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

This will create arrows on your sheet that will indicate which cells affect the value of the currently selected cell.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

To remove these arrows, Go to Formulas > Remove Arrows.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

You can even use a keyboard shortcut to highlight the precedent cells.

STEP 1:Select the cell F9.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 2:Press Ctrl + [. This will highlight all the cells mentioned in the formula.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

You can press Tab to move between these cells.

Another cool tip is that this feature also works when the formula contains a link to an external workbook and that workbook is closed. When you press Ctrl + [, it will open the closed workbook and take you to that specific cell.

Let’s look at another example for this.

STEP 1:Select a cell that contains a formula linked to a different worksheet or an external workbook.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 2:Go to Formulas > Trace Precedents.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

Since the dependent cells are placed in a different worksheet, it will be indicated with a black dash line and arrowhead pointed to a small picture.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 3: Double click on the dashed line to open the dialog box that lists the dependent cells.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 4: Select the cell from the list and press OK. Excel will take you to the referred cell.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

Trace Dependents

Dependent cells can be used to show the cells that are affected by the active cells. To see the cells that are dependent on the active cells, follow the steps below:

STEP 1: Select the cell you want to analyze.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 2: Go to Formulas > Trace Dependents or Press Ctrl +].

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

This will highlight the dependent cell with blue arrows.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

STEP 3:Click on Trace Dependents again to show more cells that are related to the active cells.

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

HELPFUL RESOURCE:

Make sure to download our FREE PDF on the 333 Excel keyboard Shortcuts here:

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

You can learn more about how to use Excel by viewing our FREE Excel webinar training on Formulas, Pivot Tables, Power Query, and Macros & VBA!

What Excel feature allows you to see which other cells reference a particular cell?

About The Author

John Michaloudis

John Michaloudis is the Founder & Chief Inspirational Officer of MyExcelOnline!

What function tells you if a cell is referencing another cell?

1. Select the cell which you want to find out whether it is referenced or not by any formulas. 2. Then click Formulas > Trace Dependents.

What shows the cell reference?

Cell Reference: A cell reference is the name of the cell that is found by combining the Column Letter with the Row Number. For example the cell in Column "C" in Row "3" would be cell C3.

What is Vlookup command in Excel?

In its simplest form, the VLOOKUP function says: =VLOOKUP(What you want to look up, where you want to look for it, the column number in the range containing the value to return, return an Approximate or Exact match – indicated as 1/TRUE, or 0/FALSE). Play.

What part of MS Excel will allow you to see the cell reference or the name of the active cell?

The name box is the box at left end of the formula bar that identifies the selected cell, chart item, or drawing object. The Name Box displays the cell reference of the active cell. The Name Box can also be used to assign names to cells or ranges of cells.