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While most of us that use a computer have seen and may even have used the spreadsheets in the program Excel, few users really comprehend the power of excel formulas. Excel Formulas is one of the backbones of the extremely versatile program, offering the user the limitless ability to perform complex calculations while tracking data.
There are many different uses for Excel, from making invoices to tracking employee hours and figuring out deductions. While many people understand how excel formulas work few people understand how to make them work, which is where the real power and flexibility of this program lies. If you have ever had to crunch numbers for your business, as an employer or even when trying to create and stick to a budget at home you know how handy a custom spreadsheet would be for these tasks.
Basically with Excel formulas you can enter groups of numbers and perform calculations with them, this could be as simple as adding all the numbers up together in a row or column or it could be something like figuring out a percentage of the sum such as you might do if you need to pay monthly sales tax.
Newer versions of Excel allow you use a handy auto formula, which enables you to simply select a group of cells then apply the formula to them, however if you have an unusual lay out of cells or complex calculations you will need to do these formulas on your own. Each formula has a set of values based on how the program reads those values. It is much like a recipe, you must indicate to Excel that you are inputting a formula and then tell it what it must do with the numbers in the cells you have selected.
The equal sign will start every formula that you put into Excel; this is the value that tells Excel that you are inputting a formula rather than ordinary text. Other possible variables that you will add to your formula will be operations signs and numbers. You will also need to add a cell range; this can be one cell or a group of cells. Here you are instructing Excel to perform the operations that you requested on these cells.
Excel is a program that can be used for a wide range of different applications from simple spread sheets used to track spending to complex databases that can figure out averages, yields, cosines, tangents and many more. Understanding how to use excel formulas may take some but it is well worth the effort spent for the many applications you will be able to use the program for.