The Excel AutoSum simply makes using the SUM function even easier, but only under the right conditions. Basically what the AutoSum will do is sum a range that is visibly directly above or to the left of the cell that we use it in (the default is above). It will include all of the visible range until the first blank cell or the first cell containing text. Try these examples.
- On a clean Worksheet put any numbers in the range D5:D10 and F5:J5.
- Select cell D15 and click the AutoSum icon on the Standard toolbar. It's the icon on the right of the globe that looks like a reversed Z.
You should get the formula =SUM(D5:D14). Notice it Start s at cell D5. This is because D4 is the first blank cell. It includes the empty range D11:D14 because it assumes we will want to add numbers within this range at some stage.
Now try this;
- Delete the AutoSum in cell D15 then scroll down until cell D10 is no longer visible. In other words row 11 should be our first visible row.
- Select cell D12 and click the AutoSum icon
- You should see: =SUM() in cell D12. Push Enter and you will get an error message.
- Push Esc twice to cancel the operation.
The reason the AutoSum did not work is because there were no visible cells containing numbers above or to the left.
Try a similar exercise on the numbers in cells F5:J5 and the same thing will happen. Although we could not enter the AutoSum in the second example, it did write the =SUM() formula for us and place the mouse insertion point between the opening and closing parenthesis. This means we could simply select any range that we wanted to sum.
More On Sum Formula Here
Go To Free Excel Training Lesson 20 . Back to Previous Lesson
Go to Excel Basic/Level 1 Training Index
Instant Download and Money Back Guarantee on Most Software
Excel Trader Package Technical Analysis in Excel With $139.00 of FREE software!
Microsoft ® and Microsoft Excel ® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. OzGrid is in no way associated with Microsoft
Some of our more popular products are below...
Convert Excel Spreadsheets To Webpages | Trading In Excel | Construction Estimators | Finance Templates & Add-ins Bundle | Code-VBA | Smart-VBA | Print-VBA | Excel Data Manipulation & Analysis | Convert MS Office Applications To...... | Analyzer Excel | Downloader Excel | MSSQL Migration Toolkit | Monte Carlo Add-in | Excel Costing Templates