How to Use AutoSum on Excel: Quick Methods
Microsoft Excel is an app that can perform large calculations using a massive amount of data. While there are a variety of functions, its SUM function (short form of summation) is a commonly used one. In fact, it is one of the most basic functions of Excel. The automatic version of this function is known as AutoSum.
In this blog, we will show you the quick methods to use AutoSum on Excel. Besides knowing how to use AutoSum on Excel, you’ll learn the shortcut to apply this function.
What Is AutoSum and Its Locations?
AutoSum isn’t a new function. It has been in Excel for a long time. This function is not available on all the recent Excel versions, including the Office365 Suite app named Excel Online.
AutoSum is a function that will add up a range of cells and show you the result in another cell.
If you want to use this function, you will find the AutoSum button in two different sections of the Microsoft Excel ribbon.
- Open the Home tab and go to Editing group. You’ll find the AutoSum icon.
- Select the Formulas tab and look at the Function Library group to locate AutoSum.
How to Use AutoSum on Excel
Depending on your requirements, you may want to sum up a range of columns, rows, or multiple adjacent columns or rows. In any such cases, Excel AutoSum helps you create an appropriate and automatic SUM formula. Here is how to use the AutoSum formula in Excel:
- Select a cell that is next to the ranges you want to sum up. To sum column cells, choose the cell just below the last cell carrying value in the column. For a row sum up, select the cell locates on the right of the last cell with value.
- Now, you can open either Home or Formulas tab to find the AutoSum command and click on it. Then, you’ll see the Sum formula appearing in the chosen cell highlighting the cell range.
- If the selected range is correct, press Enter. You will get the sum of the range values on the selected cell and the Sum formula in the formula bar.
Note: Usually, Excel selects the right cell range. If a wrong range is selected, you can correct it by dragging the cursor through your preferred cells or manually typing the cell names.
Shortcut to Use AutoSum on Excel
Do you prefer using the keyboard over your mouse? In that case, you can use the shortcut of this AutoSum formula.
- Press the Equal and Alt key at the same time to insert a Sum formula in a selected cell.
- As it’ll work like pressing the AutoSum button, hit Enter to get the result using the formula.
Conclusion
From this guide, you learned how to use AutoSum on Excel. The methods discussed here are simple and quick to implement as these don’t require you to type the whole formula. Besides learning about the AutoSum function in detail, you also learned a shortcut for AutoSum.
AutoSum is a magical tool of Excel that has the power to automate all additions that you need to make. Similar to this, there are many other cool functions that you can perform on Excel to automate several tasks like spell check in Excel.
