Try this in an empty worksheet.

Edit|Goto (or F5 or ctrl-g)
type:
IV65536

That's the last cell on the worksheet in xl97-xl2003. xl2007 adds more columns
and more rows. xl95 had fewer rows.

Put this formula in that cell.
=row()*column()
and you'll see it evaluate to: 16,777,216

The 255 worksheets isn't correct. The number of worksheets that you can have in
a workbook is limited by your computer's memory.

And if you would have typed:
IV1
or
IV2
or
iv:iv
into the name box, your attempt would have worked ok.

You have to type something that looks like an address.

sheana wrote:

The book I'm reading says Excel has 255 worksheets, 256 columns and 65,536
rows. It also says Excel has 16.5 million cells. Is that correct, and if so,
how is that calculated?

Another thing...it says columns are labeled A through Z, AA through AZ, and
so on, up to IV. I typed "IV" into the name box, and couldn't visualize the
cell reference. Am I reading it correctly as the letter "I" and the letter
"V"? Thanks in advance.

--

Dave Peterson