That is what absolute reference does. When you are inserting a row, you are
actually moving the cell that it was referncing down one row, therefore, to
maintain the exact cell reference, it must update the row number, as the cell
moved.
It sounds like you want the INDIRECT function, the row/column settings will
not change.

So, instead of:
=IF($J$4=somevalue,iftrue,iffalse)
try this:
=IF(INDIRECT("J4")=somevalue,iftrue,iffalse)

Hope this helps.

--
John C


"Mike K" wrote:

Oh Wise Ones,

Excel 2003 SP
WinXP Pro

I have a date in J4. If I link the contents of J4 to another
workbook by using ***$J$4 and I insert a row where the date in J4 may change,
my linked cell reference is now to $J$5. Why does this happen?

Thanks,
Mike