On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 14:48:19 +0000, Jonny B wrote:
Thanks in advance for being there and helping. I'm Ok with the basics of
Excel, and indeed some years ago got quite good with bits of it, but am
struggling with something at home now, as I have no manual, and I
haven't needed Excel for some time so I feel like a beginner again. I
can't even find a manual online, and I thought surely that MS would have
a helping copy of the manual somewhere!

<rant
One would think, but if it exists I've been unable to find it.
Whatever one may think of the features, the help system in Excel
seems to get more and more frustrating in every release. I can
understand why people go and buy books to figure out how to use the
damn thing.
</rant

I have three or four columns of figures, and need to find a way of
taking the two highest amounts, whichever column they may be in, and
adding them together, with the sum displayed in a fourth column.

The LARGE function is what you want.

Your example makes no sense without your file (and 18+22=40, not 30),
and attachments don't work in a text newsgroup like this one, but let
me give you a simple example.

Suppose that A1:C42 contain your numbers. Put this formula in cell
D1:

=LARGE(A1:C1,1)+LARGE(A1:C1,2)

and then click and drag down to fill D2 through D42.


--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...