I'm trying to use the offset function to get a subset of a list that I update
by adding new cells and entering new data periodically. To make the
discription easy, my list is from A1 to A10, my offset function is in D1
through D5. The D column should relfect the most recent 5 entries in my A
column list. The offset is written as =offset($A$1,row(d1)-1,0) and is
copied down through all 5 cells.

This works just fine till I insert a new cell at A1. At that point, my
offset function in d1 gets changed to =offset($A$2......). Why does excel
change my absolute reference and how can I keep it from doing it?