from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
cell reference
<spreadsheet> A string identifying a particular {cell} in a
{spreadsheet}, possibly relative to the cell containing the
reference. A cell reference may be absolute (denoted by a "$"
prefix in {Excel}) or relative (no prefix) in each dimension,
thus, e.g. B$6 refers to the second cell across in the sixth
row. The distinction between absolute and relative is only
significant when the referring cell is copied, e.g. if cell
A1, which refers to B$6, is copied to cell B1, then B1 will
refer to C6.
If the reference is to a cell in a different sheet then it is
prefixed with the target sheet's name and an exclamation
mark. E.g. "Sheet 1!B3".
(2007-10-22)