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ferkel

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ferkel

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April 19th, 2007 10:00

excel question

Trying to add decimal sums to 2 places in columns I used auto add but was told it was wrong. Any ideas? ferkel
  • abach

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    Posted April 19th, 2007 10:00

    I'm not sure what you mean by adding decimal sums and auto add. Could you give more information please?
  • ferkel

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    Posted April 19th, 2007 13:00

    To Abach. I'm simply enterting dollars and cents (decimal figures) in the cells in each column, Help says click on an empty cell under the last entry and use 'auto add' (the peculiar bacward z symbol) then enter. i do this but nothing happens and I get an error message.ferkel
  • volvogirl1

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    Posted April 19th, 2007 13:00

    I don't know what the backward z symbol is and I couldn't find "auto add" in my excel97 help. 
    But to add a column of numbers using the auto sum....
     
    go to the empty cell at the bottom of the list.
    press ALT + =  (just the ALT and equal sign, not the + sign)
    this will outline the area to add up
    press enter key
     
    Christine

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  • ferkel

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    Posted April 19th, 2007 17:00

    Thankyou, I did what you said. Nothing hppened! No highlighting, nada. Mine is a later Excel, possibly 2003. The backwa. Ferkelrd z icon is "autosum" but it doesn't work
  • ferkel

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    Posted April 19th, 2007 17:00

    Thankyou Christine I just found I pressed the wrong 'alt gr.' When I pressed 'alt' it produced the same result as I get with my auto sum, namely an error message. Ferkel
  • volvogirl1

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    Posted April 19th, 2007 17:00

    So did you get it to work?  I couldn't tell from your last post.  I still don't understand what the backward z (Oh I see now, the icon on the toolbar!) 
     
    And what the 'alt gr' means.  Just curious.
     
    Christine
     
    Why didn't the AutoSum Icon work for you?  Just click on it, it should outline with a dashed line  the area to add.  Then hit enter.


    Message Edited by volvogirl1 on 04-19-2007 11:56 AM
  • abach

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    Posted April 19th, 2007 18:00

    If you mean you want to Auto Add by summing values, then AutoSum is the task to use. The icon looks like this
     
    When clicked, you'll see the marquee and references to the cells, like this
     
    If this does not work, what is the error message?
  • ferkel

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    Posted April 19th, 2007 18:00

    Dear Christine, no it did NOT work, just produced the same error msg I get when I follow Excel help. Where do I go next for advice? ferkel
  • ferkel

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    Posted April 20th, 2007 07:00

    Thankyou allan I did precisely that and get the following:
     
    The formula you typed contains an error
    -For information about fixing common problems click Help [done so]
    -To get assistance in entering a function click OK then click function on the INSERT menu [did so when I tried putting $1.22 in function agruments as figure No 1 it produced a red 'invalid']
    -If you are not trying to enter a formula avoid using an equal sign (=) or minus sign (-) or precede it with a single quotation mark (') [Dont understand this!]
     
    Grateful any help ferkel
  • RoHe

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    Posted April 23rd, 2007 02:00

    Are you sure the cells where you're entering this data are formatted and as either Number, Currency or Accounting, and not as Text or something else? Wrong format is a common reason why Autosum gives this kind of error message.

    BTW: That 'backwards Z' you mentioned is actually the Greek letter sigma, which in mathematics is used as shorthand to mean "Sum".

    Ron