title: How to trace indirect precedents in Excel?
body: <p>The Trace Precedents/Dependents buttons in Excel are extremely useful in analyzing the structure of a complex spreadsheet.</p>
  
  <p>I have a sheet comprised of many calls whose precedents are generated programmatically, using reference functions like CELL(), OFFSET() etc., where the arguments to these functions are expressions.</p>
  
  <p>When using the trace buttons, excel won't trace the cells that are not explicitly referred to in the formula.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to get the full set of precedents of a specific cell?</p>
  
  <p>Note: searching Google I saw an application in the Office Marketplace that is available for purchase and supposedly does that. I wonder if there is a way of doing so with the provided Excel functionality?</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: here's an example: in cell M5 I have the following formula, which references D5, D13, and G6. G6 is calculated by the OFFSET() function, relative to G4.</p>
  
  <pre><code>=IMSUM($D5,IMPRODUCT($D13,OFFSET($G$4, 2*(ROW()-ROW($G$4)), 0)))
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When tracing the cell's precedents, Excel does not show the G6 cell. Instead, it shows the base of the offset, which is G4.</p>