I'm looking for a way to complete the formula in a cell by putting a value into it

[rednosed]

I will try to explain better:

Right now I'm doing a bunch of measurements at work. I am measuring cloth that will decrease in length as it is twisted. Now,I have a ruler next to the cloth, and its starting position is 8,25mm. Let's say that the cloth's position changes to 6,5mm according to the ruler (after being twisted). I'm looking for the difference in length, so in this case the formula in the cell would simply be:

=8,25-6,5

However, it gets tiresome to write this every time, and I was wondering if there is a way to have the "=8,25-" ready in the cell so to speak, and all I would then have to do is enter "6,5" into the cell to get the value I'm looking for!

I hope I made sense, grateful for any help!

Best regards,
Erik from Sweden

[Jdevil]

You can put both values in two cells, like 8,25 in A1 and 6,5 in A2.

Then in B1, you write =A1-A2

Then you can just change the value of the A2 cell

[rednosed]

Thank you,

Yes this is what I considered first. But I was thinking if there was a better solution that did not require using other cells as input data. The way I'm planning on doing it if I don't find any better option is to clone the sheet, and input all the values in the other sheet and then do as you said in the "main" sheet with the formula referring to cells in the clone.

[Jdevil]

I don't really understand too much whatt you're trying to do, perhaps add some details on what would be your prefered input and output? You could also use VBA if you want to make a form or something appearing to let you input a value, since you seem to be worried about the presentation.

[JohnTopley]

if A1 is absolute ($A$1) then need only enter it once

B2=$A$1-A2

copy down