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Old 03-22-2016, 02:46 AM
Exhale Exhale is offline The difference between a comma and colon when adding? Windows 10 The difference between a comma and colon when adding? Office 2010 64bit
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Default The difference between a comma and colon when adding?

Sorry for a very simple one but I'm slowly learning Excel...!



What's the difference between these two formulas when I'm trying to add. They seem to do the same thing?

=SUM(A1,A5) and
=SUM(A1:A5)
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Old 03-22-2016, 04:40 AM
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Hi
the first sums the individual cells, in this case A1 and A5
the second sums the entire range A1,A2,A3,A4,A5
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Old 03-22-2016, 05:20 AM
Exhale Exhale is offline The difference between a comma and colon when adding? Windows 10 The difference between a comma and colon when adding? Office 2010 64bit
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Many thanks for your reply.

That makes sense, so if I use the little auto sum symbol in the top right-hand corner, it defaults to the summation of the range that I have selected by clicking and dragging? Can I use the auto sum facility to select individual cells that aren't next to each other?
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Old 03-22-2016, 06:42 AM
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In that case, click on the symbol, then while holding the CTRL key down, select each of the cell by clicking on them. Press Enter when finished

Sometimes, if there are many non-contiguous cells, but there is a pattern, there are other methods. But perhaps take it one step at a time
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Old 03-22-2016, 01:18 PM
Exhale Exhale is offline The difference between a comma and colon when adding? Windows 10 The difference between a comma and colon when adding? Office 2010 64bit
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Default Using auto sum, can I put the put the total box anywhere?

Thanks for the reply and yes, I'll try using those first before I move on!

Just one more thing, can I locate the cell with the total in it anywhere? How do I 'land' it where I want it? ...maybe remote from the series I want to sum. I've successfully cut and pasted it but is there another, better way?

I've used the click and highlight method for summing contiguous cells but I always get the final total box at the bottom of the column of numbers.
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Old 03-23-2016, 12:59 AM
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Debaser Debaser is offline The difference between a comma and colon when adding? Windows 7 64bit The difference between a comma and colon when adding? Office 2010 32bit
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The easiest way is to type =SUM( in the cell where you want the output, then select your cells to sum, then type ) and press enter.
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Old 03-23-2016, 01:02 AM
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It seems to me that clicking the autosum button, which automatically enters the entire function, including the parenthesis is much easier then typing the function
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Old 03-23-2016, 02:12 AM
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For SUM specifically, maybe (though I can probably type it faster than I can navigate to autosum on the Ribbon), but for general usage you might as well get used to typing formulas if you want to get anywhere with Excel.
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Old 03-23-2016, 05:26 AM
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Of course. Nonetheless, as the OP seems to be on a learning curve, why not take it one step at a time ?

To be complete, typing Alt+= ( at the same time) also inserts the function completely
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