Excel has been around for almost half a century. It’s an integral part of the Microsoft Office tools, right there with Microsoft Word. Yet, there are still people who are just getting started with this spreadsheet tool.

If you are one of those people who still doesn’t know how to multiply in Excel, this comprehensive guide is for you.

Multiplication Methods in Excel

There are plenty of ways you can multiply in Microsoft Excel. But, the two most common procedures are the following:

• Multiplication Using the Asterisk Symbol
• Multiplication Using the Product Function

How to Multiply Using the Asterisk Symbol in Excel

When using Excel, remember that the multiplication symbol is replaced with an asterisk (*). Hence, when you want to express 5 x 3, you should type 5*3 instead. And yes, that is without any spaces.

Another rule of Excel is that you should always start with the equals sign (=) when you create a formula in a cell. This action will signal to Excel that you are typing a formula.

Thus, typing =5*3 and hitting Enter should give you the answer, which is 15.

How to Multiply Two Cells in Excel

You can also multiply two cells in Excel, provided that both cells have numerical data in them. For instance, let’s assume that in cell A3 we have 5, and in cell B3 we have 3. Here is how you can easily multiply them, with the result appearing in cell C3:

1. Type in the equals sign (=) in cell C3.
2. Then, click on cell A3 to add it to your formula.
3. Next, type an asterisk (*) and click on cell B3.
4. Finally, hit Enter to produce the answer.

Note that you can also type in the cell address instead. You can type in as many multipliers as you want, provided that you add an asterisk between them.

How to Multiply Two Columns in Excel

If you have two sets of values lined up in a column, you can multiply them by batch. Let's assume you have an hourly rate in column A and you have hours worked in column B.

To get the product in column C, here's what you should do:

1. Type the equals sign (=) into a cell in column C that corresponds with the first row of values. In our example, that would be in C3.
2. Next, click on the cell where the multiplicand is and then type an asterisk (*). A multiplicand is a number being multiplied by another number.
3. After which, click on the cell where the multiplier is and hit Enter to generate the answer. A multiplier is a number the multiplicand is multiplied by.
4. Click the previously answered cell C3. Next, hover your mouse pointer into the lower right corner of the cell border. Then drag the mouse pointer down until you've reached the last row where you want the answers to show up.

This is how it should look like in the spreadsheet:

Note that this also works if you want to work on rows using the multiplier and multiplicand columns. However, you will have to drag the formula sidewards instead.