When you’ve accumulated a mass of data, you can leave it to Excel to calculate the subtotals in your worksheets—how many boxes of crayons you sold in January, for example, or the number of different songbirds you’ve seen in your back yard. All you need to do is group the data by the items to be subtotaled and tell Excel to outline—that is, to classify and prioritize—your data, and to calculate the subtotals. You’ll need to sort the data before you tell Excel to create the subtotals.

Create the Subtotals

1. Select and sort the data by the columns for which you want to create the subtotals.

2. On the Data tab, click the Subtotal button to display the Subtotal dialog box.

3. Select the column that you want to be subtotaled.

4. Select the function to be used to calculate the subtotal.

5. Select the column or columns in which you want the results to be displayed.

6. Select any other options you want.

7. Click OK.

8. Review the results, hiding or displaying the details.

   
   

Tip

To remove all the subtotals, select the cells with the data and the subtotals, click the Subtotal button on the Data tab, and, in the Subtotal dialog box, click the Remove All button.