Average formula for a table row

I am confused with how to use an Average Formula in table in Word 2007. I had
experimented with created a banded row and column table and I have
percentages such as 40.75% for cell B2, 30.75% for B3 and so on until B7. I
want the average formula to work for cells B2:B7 and it seems like I get a
low average of like 0.25% or 0%. I'm confused with trying to get the correct
average formula to work correctly in the example numerical data.

Hi Ron,

An 'average' of averages usually isn't very meaningful - usually what you need is the average of the underlying data.

For example, if you're using sales data organised by day of the month like:
Day Total Sales Widgets Widget%
1 $100 $75 75
2 $400 $100 25
etc
The corresponding figures for the 1st 2 days would be:
$500 $175 35
(ie 35%) whereas averaging the averages would return a misleading 50%.

Now, back to your immediate problem. I suspect you're using a formula field with coding like {=AVERAGE(ABOVE)} - you can see the
actual formula by toggling the field code display with Alt-F9. It is important to note that formula fields like this don't return
the expected result when there are blank or non-numeric cells (including cells containing alpha-numerics) in any of the range
referred to. To overcome that, you need to explicitly reference the relevant cell range. To see how to do this and just about
everything else you might want to do with dates in Word, check out my Word Date Calculation Tutorial, at:
http://www.wopr.com/index.php?showto...#entry249 902
or
http://www.gmayor.com/downloads.htm#Third_party
Do read the document's introductory material.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


"ron37" wrote in message ...
I am confused with how to use an Average Formula in table in Word 2007. I had
experimented with created a banded row and column table and I have
percentages such as 40.75% for cell B2, 30.75% for B3 and so on until B7. I
want the average formula to work for cells B2:B7 and it seems like I get a
low average of like 0.25% or 0%. I'm confused with trying to get the correct
average formula to work correctly in the example numerical data.

Oops, I meant to refer you to my Word Field Maths Tutorial, which shows how to do this and a wide range of other calculations in
Word, at:
http://www.wopr.com/index.php?showto...#entry365 442
or
http://www.gmayor.com/downloads.htm#Third_party


--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


"macropod" wrote in message ...
Hi Ron,

An 'average' of averages usually isn't very meaningful - usually what you need is the average of the underlying data.

For example, if you're using sales data organised by day of the month like:
Day Total Sales Widgets Widget%
1 $100 $75 75
2 $400 $100 25
etc
The corresponding figures for the 1st 2 days would be:
$500 $175 35
(ie 35%) whereas averaging the averages would return a misleading 50%.

Now, back to your immediate problem. I suspect you're using a formula field with coding like {=AVERAGE(ABOVE)} - you can see the
actual formula by toggling the field code display with Alt-F9. It is important to note that formula fields like this don't return
the expected result when there are blank or non-numeric cells (including cells containing alpha-numerics) in any of the range
referred to. To overcome that, you need to explicitly reference the relevant cell range. To see how to do this and just about
everything else you might want to do with dates in Word, check out my Word Date Calculation Tutorial, at:
http://www.wopr.com/index.php?showto...#entry249 902
or
http://www.gmayor.com/downloads.htm#Third_party
Do read the document's introductory material.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


"ron37" wrote in message ...
I am confused with how to use an Average Formula in table in Word 2007. I had
experimented with created a banded row and column table and I have
percentages such as 40.75% for cell B2, 30.75% for B3 and so on until B7. I
want the average formula to work for cells B2:B7 and it seems like I get a
low average of like 0.25% or 0%. I'm confused with trying to get the correct
average formula to work correctly in the example numerical data.