How to Type a Calculation on MS Word

Use Microsoft Word's built-in calculator tool.

MS Word, the popular word processing software, is included as part of the Microsoft Office suite. Word includes multiple tools to generate content in the form of words, headings and figures. One of those tools is the built-in calculator. The calculator can compute the result of simple calculations embedded in the text of the document, as long as they involve basic arithmetic operators. Using Word's built-in calculator is faster and less error-prone than copying the numbers one by one to an outside application and then copying back the result into the Word document.

Instructions

1. Launch Word by double-clicking on its desktop icon. Enable the Calculator tool by clicking on the "Office button," then on "Word options," then on "Customize." Select "All commands" on the "Choose commands from" drop-down menu. Scroll down in the list until you find "Calculate," then click on it, then click on "Add." The Calculator tool will now be available as an icon at the top of the Word window.

2. Select a calculation embedded in the text of the Word document (e.g., "23 + 4/8") using the left mouse button.

3. Click on the Calculator icon. Word will display a legend reading "The result of the calculation is..." For the example in Step 2, the result will be "23.5"

4. Paste the result of the calculation into the Word document by pressing "Control-V." The Calculator tool automatically stored the result in the clipboard after finishing the calculation.

References

• Makeuseof.com: How To Do Simple Calculations In Microsoft Word 2003 & 2007