A106 Step-by-step: Formulas
Microsoft Excel 4.0 for Macintosh
A formula is used to compute a number to put in a cell. Not only does this let you avoid doing any arithmetic, it also automatically updates that cell when anything referred to in the formula changes.
Formulas allow you to do an enormous variety of things, but we'll stick to a fairly simple one here. There is another page discussing advanced formulas.
To create a formula
1. Select the cell
You can either click in the cell with the mouse, or use the arrow keys.
2. Type an equal sign
Formulas always start with an equal sign.
3. Enter the formula
Needless to say, this is the tricky part. Practice is the best teacher, but an example can be offered.
Suppose you've got some numbers in cells B2 and B3, and you want this cell to contain the sum of what's in B2 and two times what's in B3. The formula for this would be =B2+(2*B3).
Some things to notice:
- The symbol for multiplication is
*. Similarly, the symbol for division is /.
- You may remember that multiplication happens before division, so the parentheses aren't technically necessary. Still, formulas are much clearer if you always use parentheses anyway.
4. Click on the green checkmark
Your formula has now been entered. Notice that, when the cell is selected, the formula shows up in the formula bar, but the value of the formula shows up in the cell.
If you change the contents of the any cell named in the formula, the value will change, but the formula will not.