Microsoft® Office Excel 2003 Inside Out

Chapter 12. Building Formulas

• Formula Fundamentals

• Using Functions: A Preview

• Naming Cells and Cell Ranges

• Understanding Error Values

• Worksheet Calculation

• Using Arrays

• Linking Workbooks

• Creating Conditional Tests

Formulas are the heart and soul of a spreadsheet, and Microsoft Excel offers a rich environment in which to build complex formulas. Armed with a few mathematical operators and rules for cell entry, you can turn a worksheet into a powerful calculator.

Formula Fundamentals

All formulas in Excel begin with an equal sign. The equal sign tells Excel that the succeeding characters constitute a formula. If you omit the equal sign, Excel might interpret the entry as text.

To see how formulas work, we'll walk through some rudimentary ones. Begin by selecting ...