Just click individual cells to sum
Excel 2011 had the possibility to sum individual cells by typing "=", and then just clicking on individual cells across the workbook that you want to sum, and "return" when done. This functionality is no longer available in Excel 2016 (you have to type "=sum(", then clicking on the individual cells while holding down the command key, "return". I would be happy if the old functionality is brought to Excel 2016.
Saskia Aldershof
shared this idea
Update – thanks for the continued support of this feature. We’ll keep this request open for voting, but we’ll need to consider modifying the behavior slightly if it is to be brought back. For this suggestion, we would want to enable such behavior on both Mac and Windows, but we would need to do it in a way that does not cause problems for people who don’t want this behavior. For example, it may be that you would type =, then hold the CMD key as you click the cells to be added. Or perhaps you would need to enable a preference to get the old behavior. Please comment on these options or offer other ideas.
We’ve been working to make Excel more consistent between Mac and Windows, as can be seen by the updates over the past several months, which have satisfied several thousand votes on this forum (multi-thread calculation, PivotCharts, modern chart types, new functions, slicers for tables). I mention that to be clear that we are listening to the suggestions, comments and votes.
Steve K [MS Excel]
298 comments
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Eric
commented
This works in the 2011 version. I reverted several months ago - no regrets to date.
Also a number of other things work properly again; printing, relative references, saving, macros. -
STEF BUTLER
commented
I am shocked that this was disabled. Do you know where camels came from? They asked a comittee to design a horse... Utterly stupid along with no way to customize a way to get the function back...
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Anonymous
commented
YES! BRING IT BACK! Should never have been taken out. I'm sure Windows users would appreciate that feature too.
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JV
commented
God yes, please bring it back!! I just changed from Office 2011 Mac to Office 365 for Mac and have been pulling my hair out over the loss of this great feature! What were you thinking?
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Anonymous
commented
The loss of this simple but key feature is a huge loss. I have been using Excel on Mac for decades and to drop this is really annoying. Bring it back , please.
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pam
commented
Excel had great features for summing selected cells for all kinds of applications - financial, statistical, etc. Now this capability is gone or so hard to use as having to hold this key, push that key, enter this item, stand on your head.....then you MIGHT get a result. just want a simple capability to balance my checkbook since banks have also stopped providing running account balances. I guess the new generation just uses Mom and Dad's debit cards and dont have to balance accounts, after all, money is free.....
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John
commented
Yes, thought is not even needed to make an adding machine become an adding machine once again. Bring it back. I've been doing this since 1986 and just converted from Excel 2011 - wasn't there a time when developers didn't even need to ask but just as a default rule "DON'T REMOVE FUNCTIONALITY ONCE ADDED" was a basic customer service in app development, even if setting it as new preference to toggle on and off? How was this unspoken rule of the market ever lost from memory with generational change? Oh, that's right.. it happened with the age of the monopoly, when monopoly power came to be combined with the culture of tech development entitlement. Yikes!
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Charlie Hartman
commented
The ability simply to click on two cells to add them instead of having to stop and enter the plus sign is one of the great ways that Excel works. I've been clicking like this since beta testing Excel in 1983! It seems really dumb to take this feature away just because Windows machines can't handle it. If you really have to do something to take care of the Windows people, then I'd suggest providing an easy way for Mac users to click on a preference that allows them to continue using the feature. Having to hold down the CMD key is just as inconvenient as having to hit the plus sign.
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Kevin
commented
Yes, this was great functionality. Please bring it back
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Antoine Portales
commented
The old functionality was such a time saver.
If we need to hold a key to make it work so be it. We just need it back :-)
thank you -
James Brown
commented
Maybe try voting here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/bd75e77d-e993-446a-9be4-f7b8a36513dd/just-click-individual-cells-to-sum-in-excel?forum=excel as Anonymous suggested.
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Doreen Bequary
commented
I am floored that you would remove that function. Apparently no bothered to ask an accountant how valuable this function is. If you are concerned that everyone might not want that function make it a preference.
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Rupert99
commented
I think this is a waste of time forum. We might get better results logging the issue at - https://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-us/home
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Nicolas Laurent
commented
Bring it back, please. That's a "productivity quick win"
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Anonymous
commented
bring it back please!!!!
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Anonymous
commented
Just make it a feature that we can turn on if we want it or leave it if we don't. You could even allow us to set our own hot keys i.e. Command+Shift. Give us functionality don't take it away
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Anonymous
commented
I agree. Just bring it back!
I am sure that Windows users will find it a more convenient way of adding numbers in separate cells rather than having to use the SUM function.
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Anonymous
commented
Simply bring back the old Mac sytem of =, then clicking on a particular cell to add that cell's number to the formula. If we need to hit command while doing so be it. Just make Excel as user friendly as possible.
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Lola
commented
Waiting for the update! I agree, bring back this feature asap!
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Phillip
commented
Dear Steve K, your last update was almost a year ago. Any news???