K2 Tech Update | Tech Tip
Adding Formulas To Word Documents
Accountants and other business professionals often find themselves manipulating numeric data in Word documents. For example, financial statements are often prepared in Word documents so that footnotes, disclosures, and other text can be added to the statements. When this numeric data is added to a Word document, it often is formatted as a table in Word, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 -Sample Financial Statement Data in Word
One of the advantages of working with Word's table feature is the ability to add formulas to these tables; similar to some of the formulas you might otherwise add to an Excel spreadsheet. For instance, to generate a subtotal for "Total Current Assets" in Figure 1, click in the cell where the total is to be entered and click on the Table Tools, Layout contextual tab. From there, click Formula to open the Formula dialog box shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 -Word's Formula Dialog Box
By default, Word assumes you wish to SUM the cells above the currently selected cell, so it automatically inserts the =SUM(ABOVE) formula. Simply select the Number format from the drop-down list and click OK to complete the process of inserting the formula into Word. If the data in the cells being summed by the formula changes, the formula result will update whenever the formula is updated, eliminating the need to manually re-sum the data and enter the new value into the Word document.
Figure 3 -Completed Formula Example in Word
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