Formulas
in Excel
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Business Computing Tips
By K&K Fainges kfainges@bigpond.net.au
How do you get excel to add up things for you, average results or put in
numbers only if some condition has been met? You use formulas.
Excel has wizards to help you use most formulas. But for all of them, you
can go to INSERT - FUNCTION. You are then presented with a list of categories,
each one holding all the pre-created formulas. The 'Most Recently Used'
category is often the most useful as you tend to use the same formulas all the
time.
Sum or 'add all the numbers up' function, is the most frequently used by
most people.
In fact this function is on the standard toolbar as well as S.
To use it, highlight the numbers you wish to add up (by clicking on the first
one, holding the mouse key down and dragging up to the last one and then
letting go), chose that function and a formula will pop up like =SUM(A1:A4).
Then hit enter. Viola, all added up. And if you add a row or column in later
on between the ones you've chosen, it will include that number as well,
automatically.
For most modern versions, if you click on the function without highlighting
the numbers first, Excel will make the best guess and normally guesses right.
If it doesn't, then highlight the numbers with your mouse before hitting enter
and it will fill the right ones in.
What if you want to add numbers that aren't in a straight line? Or skip a
number? Then hit the control key on your keyboard, marked Ctrl, before
clicking on each number that you want to include.
Next K-tips will cover other functions, please email me at kfainges@bigpond.net.au
and let me know if you want any particular one covered. Or any other topic.
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Please feel free to pass it on to your friends, just let them know I wrote
it.
Karen Fainges holds a Bachelor of Business, and a Grad. Cert of Vocational
and Educational Training. All this is nice but it's the 14 years of having to
make sales or starve that makes her think she has really learnt what does and
doesn't work. A tutor for all ages, she specialises in helping people get
started on the long road to technology.
"It has to be practical, it has to be cheap, and it has to work."
