Chapter 10: Introducing Formulas and Functions
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l (^) As you become familiar with the functions, you can bypass the Insert Function dialog box
and type the function name directly. Excel prompts you with argument names as you
enter the function.
Editing Formulas ..............................................................................................................
After you enter a formula, you can (of course) edit that formula. You may need to edit a formula if
you make some changes to your worksheet and then have to adjust the formula to accommodate
the changes. Or the formula may return an error value, in which case you have to edit the formula
to correct the error.The following are some of the ways to get into cell edit mode:l (^) Double-click the cell, which enables you to edit the cell contents directly in the cell.
l Press F2, which enables you to edit the cell contents directly in the cell.
l (^) Select the cell that you want to edit, and then click in the Formula bar. This enables you
to edit the cell contents in the Formula bar.
l (^) If the cell contains a formula that returns an error, Excel will display a small triangle in the
upper-left corner of the cell. Activate the cell, and you’ll see a Smart Tag. Click the Smart
Tag, and you can choose one of the options for correcting the error. (The options will vary
according to the type of error in the cell.)
Tip
You can control whether Excel displays these formula-error–checking Smart Tags in the Formulas section of the
Excel Options dialog box. To display this dialog box, choose File ➪ Options. If you remove the check mark
from Enable Background Error Checking, Excel no longer displays these Smart Tags. n
While you’re editing a formula, you can select multiple characters either by dragging the mouse
cursor over them or by pressing Shift while you use the navigation keys.
Tip
If you have a formula that you can’t seem to edit correctly, you can convert the formula to text and tackle it
again later. To convert a formula to text, just remove the initial equal sign (=). When you’re ready to try again,
type the initial equal sign to convert the cell contents back to a formula. n
Using Cell References in Formulas ....................................................................................
Most formulas you create include references to cells or ranges. These references enable your formu-
las to work dynamically with the data contained in those cells or ranges. For example, if your for-
mula refers to cell A1 and you change the value contained in A1, the formula result changes to