How to Create a Named Region in Excel 2010 using SharePoint

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How to Create a Named Region in Excel 2010 using SharePoint

Added by Spike Xavier June 25, 2013

Frequently when getting data into SharePoint 2010 from Excel 2010 it becomes necessary to create named regions in the Excel Worksheets before getting them into SharePoint 2010. Often times when working with clients or students I find that they don’t know how to do this, so I decided to make a blog post to quickly bring everyone who wants to up to speed.

I have a workbook with several worksheets. In particular I have two sections of data I am going to want to eventually get into SharePoint 2010. In order to prepare the workbook I will create 2 named regions so that when I save and send to SharePoint or if I decide to create a list from one of the named regions the workbook is ready to go.

This skill is especially important when working with Excel 2010 and SharePoint 2010.

Highlight the range in the worksheet that will become a named region

Highlight-the-range-in-the-worksheet-that-will-become-a-n.png

I have two sections I will prepare. One is a list of instructors and the other is a list of courses. First, I will highlight the range of cells that includes the instructors data.

Right click and choose Define Name

With the instructors highlighted (including the header row) I right click and choose Define Name.

Name the Region

In this case, Excel 2010 used the header row to guess the name for my region, and in this case, it was close. I will simply add an “s” to Instructor so that my Named Region is Instructors. When I’m done, I’ll click OK.

Verify new Named Range

With the region highlighted, I can see that the Name of my named range appears in the small text box in the upper left section of the Ribbon so it worked.

Highlight second named range

I highlight the second range, in this case I don’t have a header row.

Right click and choose Define Name again

With the range of cells I want to include in the named range selected, I right click and choose Define Name.

Name the range of cells

Because I had no header row, the name is currently blank.

Name the Range

With the region still highlighted, I’ll name the range InterfaceCourses and click OK.

Click File Save and Send

I can stop here after hitting save but if I wanted to get some or all of this into SharePoint, one way to do it would be to hit File

Save to SharePoint Publish Options

When you click Save and Send and Save To SharePoint a button will appear in the upper right side of the window that says Publish Options. I click that button to get the Publish Options Dialog box.

Choose Items in the Workbook

By default, the Entire Workbook will be selected, but I use the drop down menu and choose Items in the Workbook.

Select the Desired Range or Ranges and click OK

In this case, I selected Instructors and then OK. I would still have to provide a location in SharePoint to save this to but this is how you prep a workbook with Named Regions. This skill is important when working with SharePoint. It is used in many areas including, Excel Services, Excel Web Access, the creation of lists from a worksheet or portion of a worksheet and others.