column won't add

[June Mackenzie]

I am an Excel neophyte. Sometimes I can't add figures in a column, or
they're added incorrectly--even when I have reformatted all the figures in
the column. Any ideas?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

First, format doesn't affect the values stored in the cells, nor in how
functions use that stored value (unless you've selected the Precision as
Displayed option). See

http://www.mcgimpsey.com/excel/pennyoff.html

Second, if your numbers are entered as Text (either by preformatting the
cell as Text, or, often, when pasting numbers in from another
application), you'll get incorrect results since some functions, such as
SUM() will ignore Text numbers.

To coerce Text numbers to actual numbers, select an empty cell. Copy it.
Select your "numbers". Choose Edit/Paste Special, selecting the Values
and Add radio buttons. Click OK.

 

[Bernie Deitrick]

June,

In addition to JE's comments, make sure that you don't have any rows hidden or with very small row
heights.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP