How to Total Lines in Google Docs

Google Docs's online storage makes it easy to share spreadsheet information.

Google Docs' Spreadsheet application works much like other common spreadsheet programs such as Office Excel and OpenOffice.org Calc, and allows you to perform basic mathematical functions. Taking the total sum of several lines gives you a quick and automatic way of presenting budget balances, expense reports and other important figures without any manual calculation. The process can total any set of lines in the spreadsheet, including lines that use functions for their values.

Instructions

1. Open Web browser and sign in to the Google Docs website. Click on the spreadsheet you want to edit or slick on the "Create New" drop-down menu and choose "Spreadsheet" from the list.

2. Enter the data you wish to total. You can use multiple columns and rows in any combination you wish.

3. Click the cell you want to use to display the total of the data lines. Click the "Insert" menu. Highlight "Function" and select "Sum." This will enter a blank "=SUM()" function into the cell, although you may also type the function manually if desired.

4. Click and drag over the entire data range you want to total. The selected cells will appear in green letters in the total cell. Press "Enter" to save the changes. You may also enter cell ranges manually by placing a ":" between the first and last cells in the range, such as "=SUM(A1:B2)." Separate multiple ranges with a comma. The summed cell will update if you change the reference data cells, and can also sum cells that already contain other functions.

Tips & Warnings

• Selecting a range of cells is one quick method of selecting multiple data points, but will not work if you have non-continuous data cells. To add individual cells, separate them with a comma in the total cell's parenthetical marks. For instance, the function "=SUM(A1,D3,E2)" will total the contents of the A1, D3 and E2 cells.

References

• Google docs: Function List