Apply a Formula Over a Cell Range

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	Apply a Formula Over a Cell Range

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This short guide will show you how to apply a single formula over a range of cells in an Excel spreadsheet. This example will use a basic addition formula, but you can apply different equations using the same basic steps in this guide. Please visit the Excel Formula Quick Guide if you want to learn how to insert a formula into a spreadsheet..

1.) The first step is to open up an existing Excel sheet or create a new one. Notice Column C in my example. I am going to apply the same math function (addition) to cells C1 through C10.

2.) Left-click in cell C1 and continue to depress the left mouse button while you drag the cursor down to cell C10. The cells should be highlighted as they are in this example when you are done.

3.) After you highlight the cells, go up to the formula box and enter a "=" followed by a beginning parenthesis character. The "=" indicates that you are entering a formula and the "(" tells Excel that the formula will be contained within the parentheses.

4.) Since we are adding a range of cells, we begin our formula by specifying the first range of our formula. In this case, cells A1 through A10. The first part of the formula will be A1:A10. So enter this in the formula box after the beginning parenthesis character.

5.) Next enter the "+" key. This indicates that you are going to use addition. Now enter the rest of the formula, "B1:B10," followed by the ending parenthesis character.

6.) The final step after entering the formula is to press the "Ctrl" key and the "Enter" key simultaneously. This will fill in the values for column C.