Sum by the Numbers
Total everything up with Excel's shortcuts.JoAnne Robb
Do you hate spending time typing in Excel's Formula Bar just to create simple sums of numbers? If you use the AutoSum toolbar button (it looks like the Greek letter sigma, similar to capital E) instead, the minutes you'll save each day could start adding up.
Say for example that you want to add the contents of cells F8 through F20. Using the traditional, laborious method, you'd first select the cell where you want the sum total to appear, click in the Formula Bar (the blank white space directly beneath the menu icons at the top of the spreadsheet window), type =SUM(, click on the first cell in your list, hold down the Shift key, and click on the last cell you want to add up. Once you type a closing parenthesis--)--in the Formula Bar at the end of the formula, you're done.
But there's an easier way to do this. First, select a cell where you want the sum to appear. Next, click the AutoSum button, then highlight the cells you want added up (in our example, F8 through F20) and press Enter. Voilą, magic sums.
If you just want to quickly see the total for a range of numbers without creating a formula, just highlight the range with your mouse, and on the Status bar (at the very bottom of the Excel window, near the right edge) you'll see a box called the AutoCalculate box that reads "SUM =" with the added-up total for the cells you selected. (If you don't see the Status Bar, click View, Status Bar.) You can also get a quick average by right clicking the AutoCalculate box and picking Average from the menu.