With your list of pos/neg values in A1:A10

This formula converts all values to positive
and returns the sum:
=SUMPRODUCT(ABS(A1:A10))

Does that help?
Post back if you have more questions.
--------------------------

Regards,

Ron
Microsoft MVP (Excel)
(XL2003, Win XP)


"BRob" wrote in message
...
I've got a column of positive and negative numbers that I want to total in
two ways :

- net - ie just natural addition which I can do with the SUM formulae
- absolute - ie the total being based on an assumption that all numbers
are
positive

A slightly messy way (because of the design of the spreadsheet) is to
create
an extra column of absolute values and sum that.

So my question is 'Is there are formulae I can use to do an absolute sum
on
those values directly?'

TIA

Rob