Building a Formula

One of the main features of using an electronic spreadsheet is the ability of cells to hold formulae.

For example cell B4 would hold the total of cells B2 and B3.

Formulae can be built in a number of ways, one of which is given below.

Exercise

• Select cell B4.
• Type an equals sign, =, to tell Excel we wish to enter a formula.
• Move the cursor to cell B2 with the Up arrow.
• Type a plus sign and the cursor will jump back to cell B4.
• Move the cursor to cell B3 and hit the Enter key to complete the formula.

NOTE : The formula itself does not appear in the cell, only the evaluation of the formula.

The formula can be seen in the Formula Bar when cell B4 is selected.

=B2+B3

Exercise

Complete the rest of the totals for row 4 using the steps outlined above.

Remember that the first step is to position the cursor in the cell that will contain the formula.

Build an appropriate formula in cell B8 only.
We will use another Excel feature to complete the other formulae in row 8.

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