"Steveclark" wrote:
I have a lot of sums I have to add up, and was advised
by my boss that it would be best to use Excel to do it

First, get your a boos a copy of "One Minute Manager". He/she needs to
learn not to micromanage. Your boss has no business telling you which tools
to use for a job. However, he/she might impose certain requirements that
lends itself more to one tool than the other. See below.


Which is most convenient to use, Excel, or a calculator?

Anyone who answers that question with a simple "this is" or "that is" really
has not given the question any thought.

Excel requires a computer, and it takes several minutes to start a computer.
Moreover, you might be more adept at using a calculator, which might shorten
data entry time. For sums of a short list of numbers, a calculator is
usually eaiser.

(You wrote "a lot of sums", not "a sum of a lot of data". But many people
are not that precise in their terminology. So we really cannot infer
anything about your situation from your brief description.)

On the other hand, it is easier to check/audit data entered into Excel,
since most calculators do not provide a record of the data input. And it is
easier and less error-prone to modify the data entered into Excel, since you
would have to re-enter all of the data into a calculator.

Those are reasonable requirements that a boss might ask you to consider in
choosing the right tool for the job. And in that case, Excel would be the
better tool. Moreover, your boss might have unrelated reasons for you to
use Excel for such a simple task; for example, to begin to learn Excel for
other purposes in the future.


then how do you get it to do the math?

In this case, you can probably get away with simply entering all of the data
into a column, then in a cell in another column, put the formula
=SUM(A1:A100), if the data were entered in A1:A100.


----- original message -----

"Steveclark" wrote in message
...

I have a lot of sums I have to add up, and was advised by my boss that
it would be best to use Excel to do it; however, i'm having a hard time
figuring out how to add all these numbers together using excel. I tried
the tutorial and it's not really giving much info. Which is most
convenient to use, Excel, or a calculator? And if it's Excel, then how
do you get it to do the math? Any help appreciated thanks.




--
Steveclark