Let Word sum a column or row of numbers in a table for you. That saves a lot of calculations.
Mathematics in Word
Table made with noted costs incurred? Or the number of hours you have spent volunteering? Word adds the numbers using a special formula. This means that you do not do the calculations yourself. Especially useful when the table contains a long string of numbers. Making a calculation error is quickly done.
Addition Formulas
Add up the numbers in a Word table like this:
- Create a table or open the Word document that contains the table.
- In the table, click an empty cell where you want to display the result of the addition. For example, the cell at the bottom of the first column.
- No empty cell? Then add a row or column first. To do this, right-click in a cell where a row or column should be next to, below or above.
- click on Insert.
- click on Insert columns on the left, Insert columns on the right, Insert rows above or Insert rows below.
- At the top of the Table Tools group, click the tab Layout.
- Right click Formula.
- Usually the correct formula has already been entered. Enter a different formula if necessary:
- SUM(ABOVE): Sum the numbers in the column above the selected cell.
- SUM(LEFT): Add the numbers in the row to the left of the selected cell.
- SUM(RIGHT): Add the numbers in the row to the right of the selected cell.
- SUM(BELOW): Sum the numbers in the column below the selected cell.
- Click on the drop-down menu under ‘Number format’. click on 0 to display the result in numbers.
- click on OK.
The numbers are added up. Change a number or add an extra line at a later time? Unfortunately, the result of the addition does not change automatically. Then re-enter the formula to add the numbers.