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remember using formulas to calculate
math problems in school like two plus
two equals four or two pizzas times ten
dollars equals twenty dollars Excel can
use these same formulas to work with
numerical data in your spreadsheets just
like a calculator Excel uses standard
operators for its math equations like a
plus sign for addition a minus sign for
subtraction an asterisk for
multiplication a forward slash for
division and a carrot for exponents
you're probably used to seeing equations
like five plus five equals but in excel
the equal sign comes first this is
because the cell itself contains or is
equal to the formula and its value let's
create a simple formula to add up the
budgets for June and July I've already
typed in those values and the total is
going to be $1200 plus $1500 but instead
of typing in those numbers we're going
to use cell references start by clicking
on the cell where you want the total to
appear and then type an equal sign which
is how you'll always start a formula
then type the address of the first cell
you want to add which is b2 plus the
second cell b3 when you're done press
ENTER on your keyboard and Excel
displays the value in the cell now you
may be wondering why we used cell
references instead of numbers the main
reason is that if you ever change the
values in these cells you won't have to
retype the formula Excel will
automatically recalculate the answer so
it stays up to date you should generally
use cell references and your formulas
whenever you can to edit your formula
you can double click the cell
if you make a mistake or change your
mind you can press escape on your
keyboard and it will go back to the way
it was let's try another example this
time with multiplication I want to
calculate the total price for the
plastic silverware so I'll need to
multiply cell e4 by f4 the formula is
going in cell g4 so I'll click there and
type an equal sign this time instead of
typing the cell references I'm going to
use something called the point and click
method you may find that this is easier
than typing them press the Enter key and
it calculates the answer finally I want
to show you a quick way to add a formula
to several cells at once instead of
typing formulas for each of these three
cells you can select the first one and
then locate the fill handle in the lower
right corner of the cell
click and drag the fill handle down and
when you release the mouse it will
automatically enter the formula into
these cells now we can see the total
cost for each item this is a great
shortcut to use when you want to have
similar formulas on each row once you're
comfortable creating formulas you'll use
them all the time because they really
are one of the most powerful and
convenient features of Excel