MY FIRST FORMULA
Type in the cell A1 12.Type in the cell B1 27.
Select now the cell C1 and type = A1+B1 and press Enter.
You have created your first formula.
In the cell C1 you see the result of the sum of the cell A1 the cell B1 now.
You see a number.
And the formula that you have written, where is it now?
Click on the cell C1 (select it) and look the formula bar.
What do you see? ... The formula that you have just typed.
Type now other numbers on the cells A1 and B1.
You will see that automatically the result of the formula in C1 changes.
CREATING FORMULAS WITH THE MOUSE
First you have created a formula typing it by the keyboard; however a simpler and mistake proof way exists to create a formula.Delete the content of the cell C1, select the cell C1 and
1 - type = by keyboard
2 - click on the cell A1
3 - type + by keyboard
4 - click on the cell B2
5 - press Enter by keyboard.
CREATING FORMULAS BY KEYBOARD ONLY
Also an effective way exists to create formulas using only the keyboard.Delete the content of the cell C1, select the cell C1 and
1 - type = by keyboard
2 - press the left arrow key twice (till selecting the cell A1)
3 - type + by keyboard
4 - press the left arrow key once (till selecting the cell B1)
5 - press Enter by keyboard.
FIRST EXERCISE WITH EXCEL
Before continuing, I propose you an exercise.Enter the data as the following image
and create on the cells C2, C3 and C4 the formulas using the mouse and/or the keyboard.
SUMMING MORE CELLS
If you now need to sum all the cells from C1 to C4, you could create the following formula in C5: = C1+C2+C3+C4.Or,
select the cell C5 and
1 - type = by keyboard
2 - click on the cell C1
3 - type + by keyboard
4 - click on the cell C2
5 - type + by keyboard
6 - click on the cell C3
7 - type + by keyboard
8 - click on the cell C4
9 - press Enter by keyboard.
But all this is very boring and tedious...!
THE AUTOMATIC SUM (AUTOSUM)
In excel, the AUTOMATIC SUM function, which helps you to sum adjacent cells in fast and sure way, exists. Let's see how it works.Delete the content of the cell C5.
1 - Select the cell C5
3 - press Enter by keyboard.
You could get the same result typing = SUM(C1:C4) by keyboard.
THE AUTOMATIC SUM 2nd METHOD
Another method to use the autosum is the following.After having deleted the content of the cell C5,
1 - Select the cells that you want to sum (in this case the cells from C1 to C4).
To select them, click on the cell C1 and keeping pressed the key of the mouse, drag down up to the cell C4.
2 - Leave the key of the mouse
3 - from the "Home tab", click on "AutoSum".
FORMATTING IN DOLLARS
To enter the symbol of the dollar,1 - Select the cell or the group of cells that you want
2 - click on the "Home tab"
3 - click on the icon "Accounting number format"
This formatting works, if the content of the cell(s) is/are a value.
On entering some prices or values in Euros, it is worth to write all the values in numbers first, and then to select and give them the Euros format (or vice versa).
THE OPERATORS
The symbols of the operators that are used in excel are the followings:+ for the addition
- for the subtraction
* for the multiplication
/ for the division
^ for the exponent.
ORDER OF THE OPERATIONS
In order not to make enormous errors, it is useful to know the order of the operations. The first to be made are the operations of multiplication and division, and then the operations of addition and subtraction.Let's have a practical example.
Type in A1 =5+10*2 and press Enter
type in A2 =(5+10)*2 and press Enter.
You will notice that the result is different.
In the cell A1 the multiplication 10*2 is made first, and then 5 is summed. That is because the multiplication has the priority over the addition.
In the cell A2, the parentheses have been entered instead and therefore the addition 5+10 is made first, and then the result is multiplied by 2. That is because the parentheses have the priority over all the operators.
WIDENING THE COLUMNS
To widen a column,1 - set the mouse pointer in the intersection of the two columns (on the heading)
2 - when the pointer turns into two double divergent arrows
3 - click and keep pressed the button of the mouse
4a - drag to the right for widening the column, or
4b - drag to the left for making it smaller.
