I am doing a paper on Excel and have never used it before. I would like to
know how formulas are created. I would like to know why they are the power
behind worksheets.

In their simplest form, in cell C1 enter =A1+B1 and C1 will display the
answer. The formalae can be anything from very simple to very complex and
can do calculations across multiple worksheets and multiple workbooks. Have
a look at the Excel help file for an idea of how much can be done.
Basically, just about any calculation can be performed on just about any
data.

--
Ian
--
"Lorri" wrote in message
...
I am doing a paper on Excel and have never used it before. I would like to
know how formulas are created. I would like to know why they are the power
behind worksheets.

I recommend that you get a copy or at least a copy of OpenOffice (which is
free)
Basically, a spreadsheet allows calculations to be performed on a range of
numbers stored in cells and can be as simple as adding two cells and putting
the result into a third cell or really complex calculations. Some "on-line"
research will bring you a multitude of sites giving examples of the
possibilites that spreadsheets can be used for.

"Lorri" wrote:

I am doing a paper on Excel and have never used it before. I would like to
know how formulas are created. I would like to know why they are the power
behind worksheets.

Lorri,

The previous messages have pretty much summarized it.

It's kind of like creating a ledger book with all the calculations you
desire.
I use the analogy of creating lists from simple to complex. Than doing what
ever you
want with them.

Calculations can be as simple as a = x + y
Where a is the cell that the formula is in.
x and y are just about anything - but Excel allows you to use cell
references to pull in the required values to solve the equation.

Let's say that cell A1 = x and shows the value 15
and B1 = y showing the value 3
with the formula in C1 =A1+B1 becomes 15 + 3 and 18 is displayed.

If you know algegra, than you can easily build a formula.
And formulas can contain a collection of formulas.
Plus Excel contains a list of functions (formulas) that you can use at
anytime.

The power of Excel is being able to organize data (information) in ANY
manner you desire.
It is easily inputed and very easily rearranged to suit your needs.
Additionally you can change the formats (colors, fonts, borders, etc) to
create a professional looking document.
Calculations can be anywhere and everywhere. They can be very simple or
extremely complex. And Excel can do the calculations everytime you add or
change a value.

Than there is the ability to easily create charts/graphs of your data.

Added to this is the capability to automate what ever you are doing.
I have had the honor of creating many Excel applications that transform
hours (even days) of manual input and organizing into an application that
requires only minutes to complete.

--
steveB

Remove "AYN" from email to respond
"Lorri" wrote in message
...
I am doing a paper on Excel and have never used it before. I would like to
know how formulas are created. I would like to know why they are the power
behind worksheets.

I would think your best understanding would come about if you got hold of a
few of the basic free tutorials and played with it. Active participation is
far better than passive tuition.

--

HTH

RP
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)


"Lorri" wrote in message
...
I am doing a paper on Excel and have never used it before. I would like to
know how formulas are created. I would like to know why they are the power
behind worksheets.

You may want to read about what people used before computer spreadsheets and the
guy behind one of the first (the first???).

http://www.bricklin.com/history/saiidea.htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa010199.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc

From the wikipedia site:

According to Bricklin, he was watching his university professor at Harvard
Business School create a financial model on a blackboard. When the professor
found an error or wanted to change a parameter, he had to tediously erase and
rewrite a number of sequential entries in the table, triggering Bricklin to
realize that he could replicate the process on a computer using an 'electronic
spreadsheet' to view results of underlying formulae.

From the about.com site:

Companies invested time and money in doing financial projections with manually
calculated spreadsheets, where changing a single number meant recalculating
every single cell in the sheet. With VisiCalc, you could change any cell, and
the entire sheet would be automatically recalculated.

"VisiCalc took 20 hours of work per week for some people and turned it out in 15
minutes and let them become much more creative." - Dan Bricklin

==============
When I started working, we had this giant spreadsheet -- and that spreadsheet
was a giant piece of paper. It had our customer sites along the right hand side
along with the quantities of parts that needed updating.

Along the top was a list of what was needed to update each part. It was
someone's job to make sure that they multiplied the quantity of each part number
by the number of components that were required to update that part.

When one of the R&D people came by with an "Oops, we meant 17, not 15", then
that whole thing had to be looked at again and recalculated. If someone counted
the number of cards wrong for one of the sites and we found out the correct
number, then that would cause a relook and recalculation.

We would take all those numbers, add them up and tell our purchasing department
what components we needed--and tell manufacturing how many assemblies they
needed to build -- and tell installation how many they should expect for each
site.

This was a royal pain for the person who did the work (not me!). And for anyone
who had to double check for errors.

By putting this kind of stuff into a spreadsheet, the user can type in the new
quantity and all the formulas will recalculate. Days can become minutes or
seconds.


Lorri wrote:

I am doing a paper on Excel and have never used it before. I would like to
know how formulas are created. I would like to know why they are the power
behind worksheets.

--

Dave Peterson