List's Total Row On and Off

The coolest feature of an Excel 2003 list just has to be its ability to instantly add a Total row at the bottom of the list (under the blank row with the blue asterisk where you can enter a new row of data). To do this, click the Toggle Total Row button on the List toolbar after you select one of the cells in the Excel list. The moment you click this button, Excel adds a Total row at the bottom of the list. You can then use this row to total columns with numeric entries by following these steps:

1. Click the cell in the Total row of the columnyou want summed.
   A drop-down button appears to the right of the cell.
2. Click Sum on the column's drop-down list, which you can open by clicking its drop-down button.

If you don't want to sum the items in a particular column, you can have the program perform another type of computation, such as averaging the numbers in the column or counting the items (something you can have Excel do even in columns that contain text entries). All you do is select the appropriate type of calculation - Average, Count, or any of the other available computations - from the Total cell's dropdown list.

To remove the Total row and all its calculations from the Excel list, simply click the Toggle Total Row button on the List toolbar. Excel then removes the row with all its calculations. To redisplay the Total row, just click the Toggle Total Row button again. Note also that as you add rows to the list, Excel automatically updates the calculations in the Total row to reflect the new entries.