I've seen several past postings that imply formulas should
be entered as text ("=sum(A" + trim(str(firstrow))
+":A"+trim(str(lastrow))+")"

that activecell.text = . . .
is the same as activecell.formulaR1C1 = . . .

However, the following lines of code makes me believe this
is not exactly correct?

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=SUM(R[-3]C:R[-1]C)"
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=SUM(R1C:R3C)"

How would I use variables instead of numbers and/or
offsets?

x=1
y=3

ActiveCell.FromulaR1C1 = "=SUM(RxC:RyC)"

Thanks for any/all assistance,

David Fixemer