I set up a formula within a Word table "=AVERAGE(LEFT)" on a school pupil
report to help staff to quickly complete an average score. In most cases the
boxes to the left contain a figure, sometimes a box may contain "n/a" where a
grade is not applicable. Sometimes this formula seems to work, but others it
does not and I am unable to establish any logical pattern.

Does anyone have any clues to what is wrong?

Word will look to as many cells immediately to the left as contain numbers,
so ..

1 2 3 4 average = 2.5 (=(1+2+3+4)/4)
n/a 2 3 4 average = 3 (=(2+3+4)/3)
1 n/a 3 4 average = 3.5 (=3+4)/2)

Also you must be sure that the field is updated. You can set fields to
automatically update on printing which ensures prints are correct but to be
sure the screen-displayed document is correct, select the field(s) (or the
whole document with Ctrl+a) and press F9.

--
Enjoy,
Tony


"Deb" wrote in message
...
I set up a formula within a Word table "=AVERAGE(LEFT)" on a school pupil
report to help staff to quickly complete an average score. In most cases
the
boxes to the left contain a figure, sometimes a box may contain "n/a"
where a
grade is not applicable. Sometimes this formula seems to work, but others
it
does not and I am unable to establish any logical pattern.

Does anyone have any clues to what is wrong?

Hi Deb,

The LEFT, RIGHT, ABOVE and BELOW parameters are all buggy - see my Word
Filed Maths 'tutorial' at:
http://www.wopr.com/cgi-bin/w3t/show...?Number=365442
for more details, and some possible work-arounds.

Cheers



"Deb" wrote in message
...
I set up a formula within a Word table "=AVERAGE(LEFT)" on a school pupil
report to help staff to quickly complete an average score. In most cases
the
boxes to the left contain a figure, sometimes a box may contain "n/a"
where a
grade is not applicable. Sometimes this formula seems to work, but others
it
does not and I am unable to establish any logical pattern.

Does anyone have any clues to what is wrong?