How to Use F3 to Paste Names in Excel

When using Excel, we can use names to define a cell or range of cells. We explain this in full detail on our Excel Intermediate course. However, there is a shortcut when using names that lets you identify and use a list of current names available to paste into your spreadsheets.



Below is a spreadsheet with values that we want to calculate the VAT of. To do this we have named D1 as VAT but if the file hasn't been used it can be easy to forget what the cell has been renamed to. Using F3 during the calculation will open a box listing all the available names created in this sheet and we can select VAT from it.



To insert Vat we can either double click on it or click once to select it and OK to insert it and close the box.

Naming a cell or range absolutes the cell reference which stops our formulas from changing cell ranges when we copy the formulas down. It also makes it easier to select ranges when working with formulas that require ranges to be selected.