Basic excel formulas

Copying formulas

There is a few ways of copying excel formulas. The first one is simply by standing on the formulas and selecting Crtl C and go to the cell where you want it and then select Crtl V. You can select more than one cell at once.

The second method is by dragging the formula down or right. This is used by standing on the bottom right corner of the cell until the cross appears. Hold it in and drag to where you want to copy.

You can also double click on this little block at the bottom right. This will paste the contents, format and formula down to the last line of the content on the left or right hand side. If there is no data on the left or right side of the column, then it will not work.

The third method is by pressing copy in the home page toolbar.

Stand on the place where you want to paste and click on paste in the home page toolbar.

Remember when you click this paste it will paste everything. See paste special on how to paste certain elements

Using of the formula bar

The formula function is designed to help you compile a formula. See below where to find.

If you click on the fx, it will bring up all the formulas you can use in excel. From here you can search for the correct formula you want use. This screen will like follows:

Using the equal sign

Any formula starts with an equal sign. Once you started with an equal sign you do not have to use an equal sign again except if your formula contains logical tests. You can also start with a plus sign, but the most common use is the equal sign. See screen below

This is a basic sum formula. We just use the equal sign once.

You can imagine this as normal maths. In mathematic, you end with equal sign (1+1=2). It excel you start with the equal sign.

Sums and totals

The sum formula is when you want to add more than one cell. You can either add every single cell manually for example =A1+A2+A3+A4+A5. See below

You can also do a formal sum formula. This will be =sum(a1:a5). Remember the brackets. See below:

Let’s see what the formula function will do if we stand on a6 and select the formula function. If you have a formula in that cell the formula bar will open up the window for that formula, like below:

Take note that a proper description is supplied of every field. It also gives the formula result.

You can also go to formula menu and select which formula you wish to use. It gives you all the formulas in different categories.

The last method is by using the Autosum function. You can either stand at the bottom of the numbers or select the numbers and click on autosum, this will automatically total the numbers. See second table below.

You can find autosum on the home toolbar. See below.

Subtracting cells

Subtracting cells is done by using the minus sign on the keyboard (-). See below.

Multiplying and dividing

Multiplying is done by the asterisks key on the keyboard (*). Dividing is done by the forward slash key on the keyboard (/). 
See below.

<-----Back to index

Next topic----->