How to ‘Add’, ‘Multiply’ & ‘Percent’ in Word 16 Tables
By: A.C. Flory
Tags: Word 2016, Mulitply And Percent, Microsoft Office, Tables, Function

This how-to is a task-driven, step-by-step guide to Word 16 tables, in particular, the ‘Add’, ‘Multiply’ and ‘Percent’ functions. You can find the Word 10 equivalent here.

The Task

The ‘task’ is to create a table that can be used as a simple quotation or invoice, perhaps by the owner of a very small business, or a sole trader.

The Process

I began by creating a table with the following dummy data :

A simple table in Word 16

[Note: if you are new to Word Tables you can read my step-by-step guide here.]

So now we know how much each item costs and how many of them there are. The next thing we need to do is work out the sub-total [$] for each item. This involves multiplying the unit cost of Part #123 by the Unit Qty — i.e. 100 x 2. This is what we want to see :

And this is how we do it. First, click inside the Sub-Total cell for Part #123 as shown above. This will cause the Table Tools tab to be displayed:

The Table Tools tab in Word 16

If you can’t see the ‘Design’ and ‘Layout’ sub-tabs, click Table Tools at the top of your screen as shown.

Next, click Layout and then select the option for ‘Formula’:

The Layout options on the Table Tools tab

A popup will appear :

The Formula popup in Word 16

Under Formula, Word takes a guess as to the formula you might want to use and displays ‘=SUM(LEFT)’. Unfortunately, this formula would simply add all the numbers to the left of the cell — i.e. 100 + 2 = 102. Wrong. What we want to do is multiply 100 by 2, and for that we need a function called ‘PRODUCT’.

Delete the current formula and press the equals sign on your keyboard [‘=’]. Now click the arrow next to ‘Paste function’ on the popup. Scroll down and click PRODUCT as shown:

Selecting the function for ‘multiply’

Word pastes the function into the ‘Formula’ box for you along with two brackets ( ). The cursor will be inside those brackets, ready for you to tell Word which numbers you want multiplied.

Type the word ‘left’. Yes, the actual word for left. See below :

Selecting all numbers to the ‘left’ of the cell

While you’re there, click the arrow next to ‘Number format’, scroll down the list and select the decimal format [optional].

Click OK and Word multiplies all the numbers to the left of the current cell until it reaches a blank cell, or, as in our case, it reaches some plain text. The number that results from that multiplication will be inserted into the Sub-Total field of the table.

Now, repeat the same process for the last two Sub-Total cells — i.e. for Part # 456 and 789. When you’re done, your table should look like this :

Using the PRODUCT to find the Sub-Total

Now we’re going to add up those three numbers, and have Word put the result in the Total column. But before we do that I need to explain about co-ordinates. In spreadsheets, the column names and row numbers are always visible, like so :

Co-ordinates in Excel

In Word tables, however, we have to imagine those nice, neat co-ordinates. In practice, this means that all the headings are in Row 1 and all the numbers start in Row 2. This is important because the next step requires that we specify those co-ordinates in a formula.

To begin, click inside the empty cell opposite ‘Parts’ in the Total column:

This tells Word where the result of the calculation is to go.

Next, go back to Table Tools/Layout/Formula to display the formula popup. This time, however, the popup just shows the equals sign [‘=’]. This is because it can’t find any numbers, either above the cell or to its left.

As before, click the small arrow to display the list of available functions and select SUM.

With the cursor inside the SUM brackets, type :

e2:e4 [i.e. e2 colon e4]

This tells Word to select the range of cells from e2 to e4. The co-ordinates for that range look like this:

The co-ordinates for a range of cells

Remember to select the decimal number format, and the popup should look like this :

Manually specifying the cell references

Click OK and the table should now display a total for Parts:

Calculating the Total for Parts

In Australia, no quote or invoice would be complete without our beloved GST so that is what we need to do next.

[Note: GST is a 10% sales tax placed on everything except food].

Click inside the empty cell next to GST in the Total column.

Open the Layout sub-tab and select Formula.

Delete the existing formula from the popup and type:

=(f5*10)/100

What does that mean?

f5 is the co-ordinate for the cell that contains the total cost of the parts — i.e. 750:

The invisible co-ordinates in Word tables

The * is the sign for ‘multiply’, 10 is the 10% GST, / is the sign for ‘divide’. Put it all together and we should get the GST amount to be paid on $750.

Click OK and you should see this :

Calculating the 10% GST

Our last task is going to be the easiest of the lot. All we have to do is add the GST amount to the figure for total Parts.

Click inside the empty TOTAL cell [F6 according to the invisible co-ordinates], click on Layout and select Formula. You should see this:

Calculating total Parts plus the GST

This time, the popup shows the exact formula we need — i.e. =SUM(ABOVE). With this formula, Word will add up all the numbers that occur above the cell in which the formula is located. That means it will add Parts and GST only because we kept the rest of the column empty.

Select $ from the number format list in the popup and click OK. :

Calculating the grand total

The table is now accurate, but not very pretty. To make everything line up nicely, select the Total column and search the Layout tab until you find the ‘Align right’ icon :

The alignment buttons for tables

Click, and ta dah!

Numbers right aligned

I have to say that this has been a lot of work to achieve something Excel could have done in moments. The point is though, with a spreadsheet you end up with a spreadsheet. With Word tables, you end up with something that can be incorporated into a complete, professional looking document. That said, I wouldn’t dream of using a table for masses of data — that is not what it is designed for. Tables are a quick [once you know what you’re doing] and dirty tool for smallish jobs.

cheers

acflory