Overview

When you first open Microsoft Excel, you generally open a Workbook.  This contains worksheets which are denoted by tabs along the bottom, by default they are named sheet1, sheet2, etc..

Each sheet is made up of Cells which can be referenced by the letter along the top and the number down the side.  Example: Cell C6 is the third cell in and sixth down, A1 is the upper left most cell..

Just above the cells, normally from D onwards is the Formula Bar..   This is where you type in your formulas.

Example 1: if you want to add the contents of cells A1 & A2 and then show the total in cell A3, you would:

• Click on cell A3 and type in the formula bar  =sum(A1+A2) 

Now the total of cells A1 & A2 will be shown in cell A3, even if you change the values of cells A1 or A2..  Keep it to numbers for now :)

Example 2: if you want to add the contents of cells A1 through to A5,  and then show the total in cell B1, you would:

• Click on cell B1 and type in the formula bar  =sum(A1:A5) 

Again the total of cells A1 to A2 will be shown in cell B1.

Important: If you click on a cell and see a formula in the formula bar (such as =sum(A1:A5), do not type over it unless you know what you are doing....   

As in example 2, if you were to type, say 20 in B1 as that is the correct total, when the values of A1 to A5 change B1 will still show 20 as the total and may be wrong.  this is a very simple example, but very common that people start type in cells that contain formulas and then break the spreadsheet.

Always check the contents of the cell before entering data.  This is also a good way to learn formulas or see how the calculations are carried out.

Cells can be locked, but sometimes its not practical.  I may cover locked cells in a later post.. 

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