Hi Fellow Excel Addict,

Welcome to another issue of 'Spreadsheet Tips From An Excel Addict.' Monday, April 26th was the first anniversary of my website and newsletter. Over the past twelve months I've shared almost 200 tips with thousands of Excel users around the world.

I want to thank all of you who have passed on comments and suggestions to me and especially those of you who have helped me spread my tips across your office and around the world. When I receive feedback on how my tips have helped someone, that makes it all worthwhile for me.

This weeks newsletter is the first issue of year two. As usual, I've got more tips that I hope will make working with Excel a little easier and enjoyable for you.

Again, I love hearing from fellow 'Excel addicts' so send me an email and share your Excel story with me. But remember that if you email me, please include "TheExcelAddict" in the subject line to make it stand out from all of the junk mail I receive daily.

To Your Success!
Francis Hayes (The Excel Addict)

DISCOVER NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR, CANADA:
This is where I grew up: http://www.brigus.net/
This is where I now live: http://www.conceptionbaysouth.ca/
This is my beautiful province: http://www.gov.nf.ca/tourism/

There are times when you want to calculate the sum of a group of non-contiguous cells. How do you do that now? Do you enter a formula such as =B5+D5+F5+H5+J5? That can be very cumbersome, especially if you're dealing with a lot of cells. That's how I used to it until I discovered a much faster and easier way.

Click the AutoSum button. Then, one at a time, click each of the cells you want to sum, typing a comma to separate each cell in the formula (i.e. =SUM(B5,D5,F5,H5,J5). So basically what you're doing is clicking the cells with your mouse and pressing the comma with your free hand. Even if you have many cells to sum, this way allows you do it very fast and easy.

Another option is to hold down the CTRL key (instead of pressing the comma) as you are selecting the cells.

You can also drag to select if there are some contiguous cells in your formula (i.e. =SUM(B5,D5,F5:H5,J5)

Jim Rohn's Weekly E-Zine is a free weekly publication dedicated to providing valuable insights and information that can help empower and improve both your business and personal life. Find out more at http://www.TheExcelAddict.com/rd/jimrohn.htm.

All you have to do to qualify each month is send an email to your Excel friends and associates recommending my newsletter and website. Include a BCC to referral@TheExcelAddict.com and for each person that you refer, your name will go into the draw. Please, recommend only to people you know and who are Microsoft Excel users.

All you have to do each month is click here to recommend my newsletter and website to a friend. For each person that you refer, your name will go into the draw. The more Excel friends you refer, the more chances you have of winning, but please, recommend it only to people you know and who are Microsoft Excel users.

If you use the 'Tell A Friend' link at www.TheExcelAddict.com you could win $10,000 and you will also qualify for my Referral Contest draw.

*** Each monthly winner will be notified by email and will have 10 days to reply with a shipping address. If I don't receive a reply within 10 days, another name will be drawn.

Referral Contest Winners
February January December November October September August July June	Ashley Rankine, Perth, Australia Luis Bolivar, Maracaibo, Venezuela Joseph Mathew, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Alexandre Gusmao, Lisbon, Portugal Apollo Tigalo, Angeles City, Philippines Jim Henderson, California, USA Beki Chambers, Indiana, USA Keith Bannister, North Carolina, USA Lisa Hobbs, Pennsylvania, USA

There are formulas and then there are functions. Excel's help menu defines functions as "... predefined formulas that perform calculations by using specific values, called arguments, in a particular order, or structure."

All of us are familiar with the Excel's Sum function because it is the one most commonly used. What most people don't realize is that there are hundreds and hundreds of other very useful functions right at your finger tips - another of Excel's little known secrets.

You probably won't have much use for many of these functions, but I'm sure you will find many to be very helpful in your daily use of Excel.

Take some time to explore Excel's vast collection of useful and time-saving functions. Click on the Insert menu and select Function. The functions are grouped by Category on the left. Click a category and the related functions will be displayed on the right. As you click on the function name on the right, a brief description of the function will be displayed below. To try out the function, click the OK button. As you click in each of the 'argument' fields, a brief explanation of that argument will be shown.

Some of the functions that I use regularly, are DAY, MONTH, YEAR, ABS, ROUND, SUBTOTAL, SUMIF, SUMPRODUCT, COUNT, COUNTIF, VLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH, OFFSET, LEFT, MID, RIGHT, LOWER, UPPER, PROPER, TEXT, TRIM.

There are tens of millions of other Microsoft Excel users all over the world. The vast majority of them have a very limited knowledge of Excel's capabilities. My goal is to share this information with everyone I possibly can and help them to benefit from Excel's amazing capabilities.

Please help me spread the word about my newsletter. If you know other Excel users, please tell them about "Spreadsheet Tips From An Excel Addict". I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

Maybe you know someone who supervises or employs many Excel users. That's where your referral could have a big impact.

VERY IMPORTANT: Please refer only people you know personally, who use Microsoft Excel and would benefit from this newsletter.

Have you ever visited a webpage and pressing the Back button on your browser wouldn't return you to the previous site. You were 'stuck' in that website. This is becoming very common on the Internet so you have probably already experienced it.

I don't know why people design websites to do that. Do they think you will stay there because your Back button doesn't work? It is very frustrating when it happens and I always make a note never to return to that website again.

There is a simple solution to this, rather than closing your browser window. There is a small dropdown arrow on your Back button. Clicking on the arrow will reveal a list of recently visited sites. Anytime you are 'stuck' in a website, you can escape by selecting a previously visited site from this list.