OpenOffice.org 2, Firefox, and Thunderbird for Windows All in One [Electronic resources]

Greg Perry, M. T. Cozzola, Jennifer Fulton

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53. Enter Calc Functions

Computing totals is so common, Calc makes the Sum() function even easier to use by placing the

Sum button on the

Formula bar. Just click a blank cell below or to the right of a range of values, click the

Sum button, and Calc computes the sum and writes the proper Sum() function for you. If Calc guesses incorrectly at which cells you want to include in the function, you can edit the cell addresses in the

Formula bar.

53. Enter Calc Functions

52 About Calc Functions lists some of the most common functions you'll use. For the rest, use Calc's

Help feature to find the function you want to use and then type that function and its arguments to get the result you want.

Select the Cell to Hold the Function

Click to select the cell you want to contain the results of the function.

Request the Function

Type an equals sign (=) followed by the name of the function. For the Sum() function, you can bypass this step and simply click the

Sum button on the

Formula bar.

Enter the Arguments to Include

Type an open parenthesis (

( ) and then type or select the values you want to include in the function, followed by a closing parenthesis (

) ). A border appears around the cell or range to be included in the equation. For the Sum() function, your task is simplified once again because Calc proposes a range as soon as you click the

Sum button. If it guesses wrong, drag to adjust the selection.

If the range is correct, press

Enter to accept the sum; otherwise, type a different range inside the Sum() function's argument list and then press

Enter . The sum then appears in the cell.

TIP

The

Status bar at the bottom of the work area provides a quick way to see the result of common functions on-the-fly. Simply select a range, and the status bar automatically displays the range's sum until you select a different cell or range. You can right-click in the

Status bar to automatically display other common functions such as

Average or

Count , or to display no results at all if you don't want this quick reference available as you work.

NOTE

As with formulas, you can select a cell containing a function and press

F2 to change the function, its arguments, or a formula that uses the function.

Drag the Fill Handle to Extend the Function

As with any other formula or cell label, you can drag the formula's fill handle, whose cell contains a function such as Sum(), to another cell to extend that formula.

Select a Range Before Summing

Calc doesn't make you request one sum at a time. Just select all the cells at the end of a set of rows or columns before clicking

Sum .

Request a Sum

When you click the

Sum button, Calc automatically sums the preceding rows or columns for the cell you selected.

Request an Average

Although other functions aren't represented on the

Formula bar, you can easily request them as well. To get a yearly sales average, for example, you can type =Average(B6:B17) in cell B20 to learn your average monthly sales in 2004.