You could sort your data (all the columns) by the category column.

Then use data|subtotals (in xl2003 menus).

Then use the outlining symbols to the left to hide/show details.

If you're really industrious, you could learn about pivottables.

If you've never used pivottables, here are a few links:

Debra Dalgleish's pictures at Jon Peltier's site:
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Pivots/pivottables.htm
And Debra's own site:
http://www.contextures.com/xlPivot01.html

John Walkenbach also has some at:
http://j-walk.com/ss/excel/files/general.htm
(look for Tony Gwynn's Hit Database)

Chip Pearson keeps Harald Staff's notes at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/pivots.htm

MS has some at (xl2000 and xl2002):
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/XCrtPiv.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/assistan...lconPT101.aspx

The Ambassador wrote:

I have all my expenses for 2009 listed in date order. I have assigned each
one an expense category using a drop-down based on the "data validation"
tool. Is there an easy way to tally up the total expenses for each category?

--

Dave Peterson