By locking any specific cell used in the formula you will save tons of time. % of people told us that this article helped them. The same process works for the row 7 because of the dollar sign before the number 7. Show Less. This article was written by Darlene Antonelli, MA. Microsoft Office Technician: John D, Bachelor's Degree replied 7 years ago. If you press F4 button three times, it will lock only the column and remove the anchor sign from the row. At least half of those errors occurred because of not anchoring the right cell in your formula. excel shortcuts . 3. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Advanced Excel Tutorials & Free online Excel courses. Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Anchoring is definitely the most essential trick that you can learn in Excel. By pressing F4, you can select different options of anchoring. I have the same question (16) Subscribe Subscribe Subscribe to RSS feed; Answer Phillip M Jones. The first dollar sign shows that it is anchored by its column. Anchoring is probably the most used shortcut in Excel. 1. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/5\/59\/Insert-an-Object-in-Excel-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Insert-an-Object-in-Excel-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/5\/59\/Insert-an-Object-in-Excel-Step-1.jpg\/aid11344333-v4-728px-Insert-an-Object-in-Excel-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":346,"bigWidth":"728","bigHeight":"547","licensing":"