Something about SUM

You are in a meeting and have to add some numbers together in Google Sheets, everyone's looking at your screen waiting for an answer to magically pop up! and you are adding the numbers in your calculator and hoping your answer is correct!

To prevent such incidents, we will go over some basics of SUM.

In order to place a SUM function, the steps are:

1. Write =SUM(

2. If you want to add the numbers in cells A1,A2,A3, click on the cells after writing step 1, or holding the Ctrl button.

3. Close the function with a )

4. Click Enter

You should see the result of the added numbers. Do note that SUM function doesn't work with text so its best to add only numbers. A separate function called Concatenate can help you with text.

Level 1 SUM

Completing a SUM Function using your keyboard and mouse in the same Sheet.

Steps:

1. Write =SUM(

2. Press the Left Arrow Button on your keyboard to move across the sheet.

3. Go to cell A1 and then from your keyboard press on ,

4. Click on Cell A2 and then again press , and then click on Cell A3 and then press ) and press Enter.

Although this is still completing the SUM function, lets try this with the help of the keyboard only.

Level 2 SUM

The Arrow buttons help you to navigate across the spreadsheet.

Steps:

1. Write =SUM(

2. Press the Left Arrow Button on your keyboard to move across the sheet.

3. Go to Cell A1 using only your Arrow buttons.

4. Press Ctrl+Shift+Down Arrow Button once you are in Cell A1. This will select all the numbers in the Column.

5. Incase if you don't want to add all the numbers in the row, you may press Shift+ Down Arrow Button.

6. Closing the function isn't necessary with ) and you may directly click Enter

Congratulations! You can now write functions using only your keyboard. We will soon get to writing more functions.