Wiley The Unofficial Guide to Excel 2003 978-0-471-76321-5 Manuale Utente

Chapter 4

109

Simple calculations and quick answers 

■

Cell references 

■

Writing formulas 

■

Moving and copying formulas 

■

Linking workbooks with formulas 

■

Cell names 

■

Editing

formulas 

■

Auditing formulas 

■

Locating worksheet errors

nce data is entered in a workbook, you’re ready to
perform calculations on it (after all, calculations are
why Excel exists). To perform calculations in a work-

sheet, you write formulas; to perform complex calcula-
tions, you use functions in your formulas (functions are
built-in mathematical equations that save you time and
effort, and are covered in Chapter 5).

This chapter is full of basic calculation information: get-

ting fast answers without formulas, writing your own for-
mulas, using cell references and cell names for better
calculation control, and fixing errors. It could just as well
have been titled “Calculations 101.”

To get really quick answers without writing a formula your-
self, you have two options: AutoCalculate, which calculates
cells in the worksheet temporarily but doesn’t write formu-
las; and AutoSum, which writes very simple formulas in the
worksheet very quickly.

AutoCalculate is a handy tool that I use often to calculate
cells on the fly while I work. The AutoCalculate box is near
the right end of the Excel Status bar, shown in Figure 4.1.

09_763217 ch04.qxp  1/18/06  11:23 PM  Page 109