Numbers: Using the Quick Calculations Bar

One of my favorite Numbers features is being able to select cells and see stats on my selection at the bottom of the window.

This is handy if I need a quick sum or average, for example, of a group of numbers. And that bar is even more useful than it appears at first glance—for starters, it’s easy to customize what functions appear there by clicking on the gear icon at the bottom of the window and choosing from the menu that’ll appear.

Note that you have to have more than one cell selected to see this option, so if the bottom of your window appears blank, be sure to click and drag to select a few cells first. 

After you’ve gotten all of your preferred functions added, though, just drag ’em around to rearrange that bar to your liking.

Another thing you can do with those quick calculations is pick them up and drop them into cells to add the chosen formula there.

And finally, if you see a function appear that you’re not familiar with, hover over it to get a defining tooltip.

If you’re not a spreadsheet master, this is a simple way to increase your fluency in formula-speak.

VARPA?! OK, I will never, EVER use that function, but I feel a teensy bit smarter for having read that.