Excel, is there a way to sum within column quickly? and then get a total

You can put this array* formula in cell F5:

=SUM(INDEX(F:F,MAX(IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("section",B$5:B5)),ROW(B$5:B5)))+1):INDEX(F:F,MIN(IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("section",B6:B$259)),ROW(B6:B$259)))-1))

*Note that an array formula needs to be committed using the key combination of Ctrl-Shift-Enter (CSE), rather than the usual < Enter >.

Then you can copy the formula to the other grey cells down column F. Note that you will need to enter a phrase into B259 which includes the word "section", like "End of section".

In F4 you can have this formula:

=SUM(F5:F259)/2

Hope this helps.

Pete

Hi peter,

Ooooooo,
Very cool!

I'm liking it.

However I have another level of summaries that I think you missed.
F10 is a summary of F11 to F14
F15 is a summary of F16 to F17
etc

Any way to account for this too?
Will keep trying to adapt what you have given. Have forgotten everything about array formula, but will continue to try.

There is no easy way of doing that, as there is nothing consistent in column B (or column A) which you could use to determine the start and end of the ranges.

Pete