Help with Excel needed

Posted by: Markus S on 25 April 2004

Guys,

I must be doing something stupid.

I'm working on an Excel spreadsheet which I have been sent by someone else.

It's extremely simple: there are a few columns, but I'm only using two of these right now.

In one column, I'm entering payments (positive or negative), the next column is supposed to give me the sum total of all payments

So we have

Line 1 payment 1 sum 1
Line 2 payment 2 sum 2 = sum 1 plus payment 2

Now the problem: I can't get the damn thing to perform the caluclation. In the second column, I keep getting repeats of sum 1, instead of sum 2 ... n.

What am I missing?

Posted on: 25 April 2004 by Don Atkinson

you might find that the formula for sum 2, sum 3, etc has a cell reference that is "fixed" ie has $ signs such as "$a$2". It probably needs "relative" cell references ie without the $ signs, such as "a2"

the error is most likely to be found in either the "sum 1" formula or the "sum 2" formula

hope this helps

cheers

Don

Posted on: 25 April 2004 by Markus S

Don, thanks for the answer; the formula seems to be correct. The problem seems to be that Exel wants to be told that it has to execute the formula. Is there a button for that?

Posted on: 25 April 2004 by Markus S

Thanks folks, found the mistake - I had somehow opened the excel sheet in Word.

Posted on: 25 April 2004 by David Stewart

Yup - that would do it

Posted on: 25 April 2004 by Don Atkinson

Markus,

good on you.....the solution would never have crossed my mind......ever.

but I had put out a contract with one or two of my "family" to find a solution for you.....i'll close those now and on this occasion, for the benefit of ag, there is no obligation...

Cheers

Don

Posted on: 26 April 2004 by Markus S

Don, it was one of those "Doh!" moments.