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To open the Insert Function dialog box in Excel, select the cell that needs the formula and then click the Insert Function button (the one marked fx) on the Formula bar. When you click the Insert Function button, an Insert Function dialog box, similar to the one shown in Figure 1, appears.
When you open the Insert Function dialog box, Excel automatically selects Most Recently Used as the category in the Select a Category drop-down list box and displays the functions you usually use in the Select a Function list box.
Figure 1: Select the function you want to use in the Insert Function dialog box.
The Insert Function dialog box contains three boxes:
- Search for a Function text box
- Or Select a Category drop-down list box
- Select a Function list box
If your function isn't among the most recently used, you must then select the appropriate category of function in the Select a Category drop-down list box. If you don't know the category, search for the function by typing a description of its purpose in the Search for a Function text box and then pressing Enter or clicking the Go button. For example, to locate all the Excel functions that total values, you enter the word total in the Search for Function list box and click the Go button. Excel then displays its list of recommended totaling functions in the Select a Function list box. As you select each function in this list, the Insert Function dialog box shows you the required arguments followed by a description, at the bottom of the dialog box, of what the function does.
 | After you locate and select the function you want to use, click the OK button to insert the function into the current cell and open the Function Arguments dialog box. In this dialog box, you can specify the function arguments. The real boon comes when you're fooling with an unfamiliar function or one that's kind of complex. You can get loads of help in completing the argument text boxes in the Function Arguments dialog box by clicking the Help on this Function hyperlink in the lower-left corner of this dialog box. |
The Function Arguments dialog box displays the required arguments for the function along with any that are optional. For example, suppose that you select the Sum function (the crown jewel of the Most Recently Used function category) in the Select a Function list box and then click OK. As soon as you do, the program inserts
SUM()
in the current cell and on the Formula bar (following the equal sign), and the Function Arguments dialog box showing the SUM arguments appears on the screen. This is where you add the arguments for the Sum function.
 | You can select up to 30 numbers to be summed. What's not obvious, however (there's always some trick, huh?), is that these numbers don't have to be in single cells. In fact, most of the time you'll be selecting a whole slew of numbers in nearby cells (in a multiple cell selection — that range thing) that you want to total. |
To select your first number argument in the dialog box, you click the cell (or drag through the block of cells) in the worksheet while the insertion point is in the Number1 text box. Excel then displays the cell address (or range address) in the Number1 text box while, at the same time, showing the value in the cell (or values, if you select a bunch of cells) in the box to the right. Excel displays the total so far near the bottom of the Function Arguments dialog box after the words Formula result=.
If you're adding more than one cell (or bunch of cells) in a worksheet, press the Tab key or click the Number2 text box to move the insertion point to that text box. (Excel responds by extending the argument list with a Number3 text box.) Here is where you specify the second cell (or cell range) that is to be added to the one now showing in the Number1 text box. After you click the cell or drag through the second cell range, the program displays the cell address(es), with the numbers in the cell(s) to the right and the running total near the bottom of the Function Arguments dialog box after the words Formula result=.
When you finish pointing out the cells or bunches of cells to be summed, click the OK button to close the Function Arguments dialog box and put the SUM function in the current cell.
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