04 – Addition, autosum, finding a quick sum using status bar

I was looking through the blog posts I had and I noticed that I had nothing in my beginners’ section for an Excel fundamental…addition/autosum and checking your sum on the status bar (a personal favourite of mine I must admit).

You can view the video here.

[fvplayer src=”https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/the-excel-expert/autosum_plus_status_bar.mp4″]

Adding up 3 or less numbers

1. Have your numbers entered (generally try to have them in cells beside or under each other – no blanks).
2. Click where you want the answer to go.
3. Type in = (this tells Excel that what follows is a formula)
4. Click on the first cell you want to add up. You should see something like A2.
5. Type in +
6. Click on the number you want to add to this. You should see something like B2
7. Press Enter.
8. Copy down as usual.

Using Autosum

1. When you have 3 or more numbers, I strongly recommend that you use Autosum. ∑. Simply because you are a lot less likely to make mistakes if you use this.
2. Click under (or to the right) of the numbers to be added up.
3. Click on your Autosum icon ∑ (see to right of Home ribbon)
4. Excel will automatically populate the cell with the following = sum(a2:a5) – you will see what looks like marching ants going around the numbers
5. Press Enter
6. Copy down or across
7. Sometimes Excel will even automatically populate the neighbouring cells automatically.

Using Status bar to check a sum

This one is very useful for the accountants. It allows you to do a quick addition of your numbers so you can see if your calculation matches what you think it should be.  Please note that this feature disappears when you no longer highlight the numbers…

1. Enter your numbers as usual
2. Highlight them
3. Check the status bar (if you look at your Excel screen – think 5 pm) and you will see the total of your highlighted numbers there.