Totaling Up with AutoSum in Excel

The easiest and perhaps most frequently used formula that you can create in Excel is one that totals rows and columns of numbers in your spreadsheet. Most often, to total a row or column of numbers, you can use the AutoSum button on the Standard toolbar. When you click this button, Excel inserts the built-in SUM function into the active cell and simultaneously selects what the program thinks is the most likely range of numbers that you want summed, as shown in Figure 1.

Following are the steps used to achieve the results shown in Figure 1:

1. Position the cell pointer in cell B7.

This is first cell where you need to build a formula that totals the various parts produced in April.

2. Click the AutoSum button on the Standard toolbar (the one with the Sigma icon).

Excel inserts an equal sign followed by the SUM function and correctly suggests the cell range B3:B6 as the argument to this function (that is, the range to be summed).

Because Excel correctly selected the range to be summed (leaving out the date value in cell B2), all you need to do to have the April total calculated is to click the Enter button on the Formula bar.

Figure 2 shows another example of using the AutoSum button to instantly build a SUM formula, this time to total the monthly production numbers for the Part 100 in cell K3. Again, all you do to create the formula shown in Figure 2 is to select cell K3 and then click the AutoSum button on the Standard toolbar. Again, Excel correctly selects B3:J3 as the range to be summed (rightly ignoring cell A3 with the row title) and inputs this range as the argument of the SUM function. All that remains to be done is to click the Enter button on the Formula bar to compute the monthly totals for Part 100.

If for some reason AutoSum doesn't select the entire or correct range that you want summed, you can adjust the range by dragging the cell pointer through the cell range or by clicking the marquee around the cell range, which turns the marching ants into a solid colored outline. Then position the mouse pointer on one of the sizing handles at the four corners. When it turns into a thick white arrowhead pointing to the center of a pair of black double-crossed arrows, drag the outline until it includes all the cells you want included in the total.

Keep in mind that all Excel functions enclose their argument(s) in a closed pair of parentheses as shown in the examples with the SUM function. Even those rare functions that don't require any arguments at all still require the use of a closed pair of parentheses (even when you don't put anything inside of them).

The AutoSum button's primary function is to use the SUM function to build formulas that total ranges of numbers, but that's not its only function (pun intended). Indeed, you can have the AutoSum button build formulas that compute the average value, count the number of values, or return the highest or lowest value in a range — all you have to do is click the pop-up button that's attached to AutoSum and then click Average, Count, Max, or Min on the pop-up menu that appears.

Also, don't forget about the AutoSum indicator on the status bar. This indicator automatically shows you the sum of all numbers in the current cell selection. You can use this feature to preview the total that will be returned by the SUM formula that you create with the AutoSum button by selecting the cell range that contains the numbers to be summed. Just as with the AutoSum button, you can have the AutoSum indicator show you the average, count, highest, or lowest number in the cell selection; to do so, just right-click indicator and then click Average, Count, Max, or Min before you select the cell range or nonadjacent cell selection.