Q. I frequently have to select the top three sales receipts for an area and then add them up. All the sales figures are on a spreadsheet and I’ve been sorting the numbers to get the top three and then adding them. I suspect there is an easier way. Any clues?
A. You can speed the process by using Excel’s LARGE function. By the way, there is also a SMALL function, which I’ll tell you about, too.
Say you have the numbers in cells C2 through C15. All you need to do is use the following formula in a separate cell:
=LARGE(C2:C15,1)+LARGE(C2:C15,2)+LARGE(C2:C15,3)
If you want to include the four largest, just substitute 4 for 3 at the end of the formula:
+LARGE(C2:C15,4)
To add up the three smallest numbers, the formula becomes:
=SMALL(C2:C15,1)+SMALL(C2:C15,2)+SMALL(C2:C15,3)
Shortcuts
Excel: AutoSum from the keyboard:
Select a blank cell to the right of or below your values and press
Ctrl+= (that’s Ctrl and the equal sign)
Word: A fast way to cycle through all
open documents: Press Ctrl+F6.
Word: An easy way to remove any
formatting that’s been added to a group of characters: Select the
text from which you want the formatting removed and press Ctrl+Space
Bar.
Internet Explorer: If, while browsing,
you would like to click on a link but save your place, hold the
Shift key while clicking; it will open a new window to display the
second site.
