Microsoft Excel 2016

Lesson 4
Using Basic Formulas

© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 1
Objectives

© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 2
Software Orientation
• Excel enables you to create many formulas by simply typing in
a cell or using your mouse pointer to select cells to include in
a formula.
• You can create basic formulas for addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division using these methods.
• In this lesson, you use a few command groups on the
Formulas tab to display formulas and name ranges to be used
in formulas.

© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 3
Understanding and Displaying Formulas
• The real strength of Excel is its capability to perform common
and complex calculations.
• The formula is one of the essential elements of Excel.
• When you enter a formula in a cell, the formula is stored
internally and the results are displayed in the cell.
• You can view the underlying formula in the formula bar when
the cell is active, when you double-click the cell to edit it, or
by using the Formulas tab.

© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 4
Step by Step: Display Formulas
• Before you begin these steps, LAUNCH Microsoft Excel and
then OPEN a new blank workbook.
1. Click cell A1.
2. Type =7+8*3/2-4 and press Enter. You just entered a
formula.
3. Click cell A1. Notice
that the result of the
formula displays in
the cell, but the
formula itself
appears in the
formula bar
(shown here).
© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 5
Step by Step: Display Formulas
4. Double-click cell A1. The formula appears in both the active
cell and the formula bar. You can edit the formula in this
mode.
5. Press Enter.
6. On the Formulas tab, in the Formula Auditing group, click
Show Formulas. The formula in cell A1 displays.
7. Click Show Formulas again to turn off formula display.
8. SAVE the workbook in your Excel Lesson 4 folder as 04
Formula Practice Solution.
• LEAVE the workbook open to use in the next exercise.

© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 6
Step by Step: Display Formulas
• A formula is an equation that performs calculations on values in a
worksheet.
• In Excel, a value can be a number, a cell address, a date, text, or Boolean
data, but is usually a number or cell address in terms of formulas.
• A formula consists of two elements:
• Operands identify the values (constant value, or a variable such as a cell
reference, a range of cells, or another formula) to be used in the calculation.
• Constant: Number or text value that is entered directly into a formula.
• Variable: Symbol or name that represents something else (cell address, a
range of cells, etc.)
• Calculation operators specify the calculations to be performed. To allow
Excel to distinguish formulas from data, all formulas begin with an equal
sign (=).

© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 7
Step by Step: Display Formulas
• Excel uses four types of calculation operators: arithmetic,
comparison, text concatenation, and reference. The
arithmetic operators are listed here.

© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 8
Step by Step: Display Formulas
• When you build a formula, it appears in the formula bar and in
the cell itself.
• When you press Enter, the value displays in the cell and the
formula displays in the formula bar if you select the cell.
• You can edit a formula in the cell or in the formula bar the
same way you can edit any data entry.
• When you click the Show Formulas button on the Formulas
tab, all formulas in your worksheet display.
• Click the Show Formulas button again to toggle off display of
formulas.

© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 9
Using Cell References in Formulas
• When you create a formula, you can reference a cell’s identifier
rather than typing the number that appears in that cell.
• A cell reference identifies a cell’s location in the worksheet,
based on its column letter and row number.
• Using a cell reference gives you more flexibility in your
worksheet.
• If the data in a cell changes, any formulas that reference the
cell change as well.

© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 10
Step by Step: Use Relative Cell References
in a Formula
7. Click cell B3. Cell B3 becomes highlighted and surrounded by
a blue dashed border, and cell B3 appears in the formula bar
rather than cell B6. Press Enter.
8. SAVE the workbook in your Excel Lesson 4 folder as 04
Budget Cell References Solution.
• LEAVE the workbook open to use in the next exercise.

• You use relative cell references when you want the

© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 11
Step by Step: Use Relative Cell References
in a Formula
• In this exercise, you learn two methods for creating formulas
using relative references:
• By typing the formula directly into the cell
• By clicking a cell to include in the formula rather than typing
the cell reference
• The second method is faster and eliminates the possibility of
typing an incorrect cell identifier.
• In a worksheet, you can create formulas that reference cells
anywhere in the worksheet.

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Step by Step: Use an Absolute Cell
Reference in a Formula
7. SAVE the workbook.
• LEAVE the workbook open to use in the next exercise.
• An absolute cell reference : refers to a specific cell or range
of cells regardless of where the formula is located in the
worksheet absolute cell references include two dollar signs
in the formula, preceding the column letter and row
number.
• When you copy the formula to any other cell in the worksheet,
the absolute reference will not adjust to the destination cells.

© 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Excel Core 2016 13
Step by Step: Use a Mixed Cell Reference in a
Formula
• A mixed reference in Excel is a type of cell reference
different from the other two absolute and relative. We
only refer to the cell's column or row in the mixed cell
reference. So, for example, in cell A1 if we want to refer to
only the A column, the mixed reference would be $A1.
• You can also create a mixed reference in which a column or a
row is absolute, and the other is relative.

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Using External Cell References
• You can also refer to cells in another worksheet in the same
workbook or to another workbook entirely.
• References to cells or ranges located in a separate workbook
or to a defined name in another workbook are considered
external references.
• Unless you specify another worksheet or workbook, Excel
assumes your cell references are to cells in the current
worksheet.

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Skill Summary

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