The status bar at the bottom of the Excel window provides real-time data about currently selected cells and can give you a lot of good information without the need to write any formulas. Here we have test score data for a group of students. Let’s use the status bar to look at the information shown in column J. First note that the status bar can be customized to display different information. Just right-click to show available options. You’ll find the statistical information grouped together. Let’s look first at Count. Count will count all cells that contain values, numeric or otherwise. Using Count, we can see that there are 20 people in this list and 99 test scores total. Count is an easy way to see how many rows you have selected, as long as those rows contain data. If we switch the status bar to count numbers, we can see that one of the test scores is non-numeric. In this case, it’s blank. Notice that Count Numbers only counts numeric values, so even if I select the names in addition to the scores, we still get a count of 99. Average works like you’d expect. You can quickly see the average for one student’s test scores, or you can get the average for one particular test. You can include as many scores as you like, and even use the Control key to add non-contiguous selections. You can get the Maximum and Minimum values in exactly the same way. You can also see the sum of numeric information in the status bar. Note that Excel will sum numeric information even when it doesn’t make sense. The sum of one student’s test scores might be something you want to know, Or the sum of some costs. However, the sum of date values probably isn’t something you need to know. Finally, note that you can display more than one type of data at the same time. For example, I can set the status bar to show Count, Sum, and Average and all three of these calculations will appear whenever I make a selection.
Dave Bruns
Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.
