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310 Formulas 101
✦ Select the name of the category of the function that you want to use from the Or Select a Category drop-down list box (Most Recently Used is the default category) and then select the function that you want to use in that category from the Select a Function list box.
✦ Replace the text “Type a brief description of what you want to do and then click Go” in the Search for a Function text box with keywords or
a phrase about the type of calculation that you want to do (such as “return on investment”). Click the Go button or press Enter and click the function that you want to use in the Recommended category displayed in the Select a Function list box.
Figure 1-4:
Selecting a function to use in the Insert Function dialog box.
When selecting the function to use in the Select a Function list box, click
the function name to have Excel give you a short description of what the function does, displayed underneath the name of the function with its argument(s) shown in parentheses (referred to as the function’s syntax).
To get help on using the function, click the Help on This Function link dis- played in the lower-left corner of the Insert Function dialog box to open the Help window in its own pane on the right. When you finish reading and/or printing this help topic, click the Close button to close the Help window and return to the Insert Function dialog box.
You can select the most commonly used types of Excel functions and enter them simply by choosing their names from the drop-down menus attached to their command buttons in the Function Library group of the Formulas tab of the Ribbon. These command buttons include Financial, Logical, Text, Date & Time, Lookup & Reference, and Math & Trig. In addition, you can select functions in the Statistical, Engineering, Cube, Information, Compatibility, and Web categories from continuation menus that appear when you click the More Functions command button on the Formulas tab. And if you find you need to insert a function in the worksheet that you recently entered