Page 367 - Excel 2013 All-in-One For Dummies

Tracing precedents
You can click the Trace Precedents command button on the Formulas tab of the Ribbon or press Alt+MP to trace all the generations of cells that contrib- ute to the formula in the selected cell (kinda like tracing all the ancestors in your family tree). Figures 2-3 and 2-4 illustrate how you can use the Trace Precedents command button or its hot key equivalent to quickly locate the cells that contribute, directly and indirectly, to the simple addition formula in cell B9.
Figure 2-3 shows the worksheet after I clicked the Trace Precedents com- mand button the first time. As you can see, Excel draws trace arrows from cells A5 and C5 to indicate that they are the direct precedents of the addi- tion formula in cell B9.
In Figure 2-4, you see what happened when I clicked this command button
a second time to display the indirect precedents of this formula. (Think of them as being a generation earlier in the family tree.) The new tracer arrows show that cells A2, A3, and A4 are the direct precedents of the formula in cell A5 — indicated by a border around the three cells. (Remember that cell A5 is the first direct precedent of the formula in cell B9.) Likewise, cells B2 and B3 as well as cell C2 are the direct precedents of the formula in cell C5. (Cell C5 is the second direct precedent of the formula in cell B9.)
Formula Auditing 349
Figure 2-3:
Clicking the Trace Precedents command button shows
the direct precedents of the formula.
Book III Chapter 2
Logical Functions and Error Trapping