EXCEL Training-by-Email Bullen Training

Level : Excel Foundation Skills

Lesson 1 : Using Autosum

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Ray Bullen, Training Director the benefits detailed below: Email:

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BULLEN TRAININGa constant reminder to learn. Classroom courses can be wasteful as 11 Phillips Crescent

participants often get information overload and CD based training Rosanna VIC 3084 Australia.

materials are put aside at busy times and are soon forgotten. Phone (03) 9459 3356 or mobile 0418 108 956.

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professional associations.

Refer the web site for pricing and more information www.bullen.com.auAn outline of each course is detailed below.

Sometimes you are stuck with an Excel problem and you just can't figure outthe solution. Your company doesn't have the resources to employee an Excel specialist so you often waste many unproductive hours trying to resolve theseproblems on your own or doing it the long way around.Well help is at hand!

Outline of Training CoursesExcel Foundation SeriesThe Excel Foundation Skills series of lessons is designed for people that have started to use Excel already but have had no formal training in Excel. It is assumed that those people have already keyed data into Excel and have used basic formulas of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing cells. It is further assumed that the following other tools in Excel have been used:

The Excel Foundation Skills series is comprised of 50 lessons that are delivered once per week via email. The aim of

skills. Quite often self taught Excel users who have explored difficult areas of Excel find that their knowledge and skills base in other areas is weak and that this Foundation series can still be of considerable benefit in building a solid foundation of knowledge.

Training

This unique Training-by-Email © system has been developed to provideray@bullen.com.au

l Self paced training www.bullen.com.au

l Short, concise and targeted training - approx 15-20 minutes

l Weekly delivery by Email encourages ongoing development because it is

l Efficient and easy to understand working examples

l Assists meeting Continuing Professional Education requirements of

l You don't leave the office, the training comes to you.

l Excellent value for money for 50 lessons

Help Desk

A Specialised Excel Help Desk is available The benefits are as follows:

l Queries answered promptly by emaill Low cost solution to provide on-going assistance

l Guaranteed response within 24 hours

* Copy and paste * Bolding, italics and underlining * Printing * Saving and opening files

these lessons is to build a solid foundation in the efficient use of Excel and improve productivity, confidence and overall

To give you an idea of the breadth of the course, the topics covered in the first several weeks are as follows:

    Lesson 1 Using the Autosum icon to quickly create totals    Lesson 2 Summing sheets the easy way

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EXCEL Training-by-Email Bullen Training

Level : Excel Foundation Skills

Lesson 1 : Using Autosum

Excelling with Excel SeriesA further series is available titled "Excelling with Excel" that looks at more advanced areas of Excel and is an ongoing series that continually explores new and innovative ways of using Excel's tools. Each week a different part of Excel is explored with the aim to continually enhance knowledge and be a catalyst in the provision of ideas for improvements to spreadsheets. The course covers all sections of Excel with the only exception being macros which will be the subject of a specially developed macro course that will be made available later.

How to begin the Training for you or others in your organisationIf you are not already receiving this training or you want other staff or friends to receive this training, simply send, or get them to send, an email to :Just provide the following information:

knowledge with the Excel Foundation Series course but simultaneously hasten their development by undertaking the Excelling with Excel skills course.

within 14 days of starting the course.

    Lesson 3 Multiple sheet navigation for quick and easy moving around    Lesson 4 Freezing headings so the headings stay on the screen as you move around    Lesson 5 Using Fill Handles to enter and copy data fast    Lesson 6 Using the Format painter icon for quick formatting    Lesson 7 Centering across cells for better presentation    Lesson 8 Using the End key to move around a large spreadsheet quickly

To give you an idea of the breadth of the course, the topics covered in the first several weeks are as follows:    Lesson 1 Using the Sumif formula to add selective data    Lesson 2 Using the If formula to respond with different answers in different circumstances    Lesson 3 Display numbers in thousands or millions easily    Lesson 4 F4 the repeat key to save time    Lesson 5 Creating Custom Lists that work in any file to save you repeatedly typing the same data    Lesson 6 Using Data Filters in a list to easily show only items that you want    Lesson 7 Using the Subtotal formula to easily add subtotals and provide greater control    Lesson 8 Creating a Pivot Table to produce a wonderful way to analyse and present data

ray@bullen.com.au

l Name, email address, billing address of the person or organisation that will be paying for the coursel Which course you want to undertake. Many people do both courses because they not only consolidate their

l No upfront payment is required. A tax invoice will be emailed when you have started the course. Payment required

Page 3 of 10 Copyright Bullen Training

EXCEL Training-by-Email

Level : Excel Foundation Skills

Lesson 1 : Using Autosum

Overview

most people who use this icon only use a small proportion of its power.

The Example pages gives you an idea of the many uses it can be put to. For those who have already usedAutosum look closely at Example 3 and 4 to fully see the power of the icon. Most people have neverused it like this before.

The Autosum is found on the Standard Toolbar and is a symbol that is the greek letter E or Sigma.This icon is circled in red below.

Procedure

Excel - All versions to 2003

Excel - Version 2007Home Tab

1. Automatic TotallingPlacing the cursor at the bottom of a column of numbers ( or at the right of a row of numbers) and pressing the Autosum icon will automatically add that range. Excel will automatically select acontinuous range of cells that contain numbers and will stop when it encounters a text cell, a

2. Choosing a range to addSometimes you want to add a range of cells but some of the cells are currently blank. The automatic totalling method would have stopped at the first blank cell thereby only adding some ofthe numbers.

3. More advanced uses

Most people use the autosum icon to add one column and the copy it across the worksheet andthen repat the process with the row totals.

totals to produce a grand total. Most people would normally press the = sign and point to thefirst subtotal cell, press the plus sign and continue the process until all cells had been added.How do you know you didn't miss one subtotal or alternatively add a subtotal in twice? Onceentered the formula would need to be copied across to the other cells. How tedious! See howquickly the autosum calculates it.

For fun, if you have someone in your office who you think (or they think) is very good at Exceltry them out on Example 4 and see how slow they are in producing the result compared to you. Don't let them see the autosum notes though. It will demonstrate that understanding theFoundation skills of Excel is so important in improving your productivity, and make you feel abit better at the same time!

The Autosum Icon is the most used productivity tool in Excel. It is very powerful in that it createsformulas that add up columns or rows of numbers or totals sub totals with one mouse click! Unfortunately

blank cell or another total. - Refer Example 1

Select the group of cells you want to add and extend the range. - Refer Example 2

See Example 3 where you can create all the column and row totals with one click of the mouse.

See Example 4 where various subtotals exist in the worksheet and you want to add all of the

Page 4 of 10 Copyright Bullen Training

Example 1 - Summing a single Column or Row is easy!

July 1,000 100 200

50 Try This

selects the range to sum. Press the Enter key to finish.

Jan Feb Mar Qtr TotalSales 200 300 250

Now Try This

selects the range to sum. Press the Enter key to finish.

Place your cursor on cell C8 and click theAutosum Icon and see how it automatically

Place your cursor on cell F15 and click theAutosum Icon and see how it automatically

Example 2 - But Problem if some cells are blank!

JulyApples 1,000 PearsBananas 200

Apricots 50 Try thisTotal

Autosum Icon and see how it ONLY adds cells

Now try the proper way

mouse and then click the Autosum icon.Notice it now sums the range correctly because you highlighted the range to add andthe last cell where the total is to go.

Note: you could have highlighted only therange C4 to C7 and it still would have workedcorrectly. However by highlighting the range to add and the total you will guarantee that thetotal will be entered in the last blank cell.

Important Lesson!You have just experienced an important lesson that the autosum ONLY addsup as far as the cells that have something in them!

Place your cursor on cell C8 and press the

C6 and C7 because cell C5 is blank.

Select the range C4 through to C8 with your

You have just experienced an important lesson that the autosum ONLY adds

Example 3 - Summing whole blocks of data with 1 click!

Jan Feb Mar Qtr TotalApples 1,000 1,200 800 Pears 250 270 Bananas 200 300 Apricots 50 30 70

TaskWe want to have formulas in the blue cells to total the months and producethe Qtr totals in column F.

pasting that formula to Feb, Mar and the Qtr total. They would then have to repeat the

Procedure.

Normally people tackle this problem by totalling up the Jan column, copying it and then

whole process again by totalling the first row, copying that total formula on the first rowand then pasting that formula to the other rows. What an effort!!!!!!!!

Now Select the range C4 through to F8 with your mouse and then clickthe Autosum icon. Notice it sums the whole block and puts totals inthe rows and the columns.

Example 4 - Producing Sub Totals and Grand Totals with 1 click!

Product Sales by RegionSouthern Region Jan Feb Mar Qtr total

Apples 1,000 1,200 800 Pears 350 270 Bananas 200 300 Apricots 50 30 70 Southern Total 1,250 1,580 1,440

Western RegionApples 500 600 750 Pears 300 220 Bananas 100 310 Apricots 100 100 20 Western Total 700 1,000 1,300 Grand Total

TaskWe want to have formulas in the blue cells to total the months to producethe Qtr totals in column F as well as having formulas to add the Southern and Western totals (rows 9 and 15) together to produce a Grand Total at row 16.

Procedure

Western Regions and puts a Grand total at row 16 as well as creatingthe formulas for the Qtr total column in F.

Important Lesson!

Notice the autosum is so smart it doesn't put a total at row 10 as there areno numbers to add!

Select the range C5 through to F16 with your mouse and then clickthe Autosum icon. Notice it sums the total rows for the Southern AND

The Autosum realised that the second last row (row 15) had a sum formulaalready in it and therefore it assumed that you wanted it to add the subtotals.

Example 4 - Producing Sub Totals and Grand Totals with 1 click!