16th March 2001
When I was in the second grade, I remember sitting at my desk and staring at a particular math problem for twenty minutes. It was eleven minus seven; for the life of me, I couldn't figure it out. "Do I have to include an additional digit when I subtract? Is the answer five or four?" Thus began my intense fear of numbers. I'm not kidding, folks; I suffer from acute arithmophobia. When calculators and spreadsheets leaped into my life, I was saved (somewhat). To help celebrate my shortcomings, I thought I'd tell you about this relatively unknown Excel trick. When you have a set of numbers, you can quantify the data without running it through formulas. Select a range (in a column or row), then take a look at the status bar below. You'll see that the 'Sum' has been auto- calculated. Right click on the status bar and take a look at your options: Average, Count, Count Nums, Max, Min, and (of course) Sum. Gee whiz, that was easy. As long as you know a little bit about these mathematical functions, this "hidden" process should save you some time.