Spreadsheet Basics
- The Calc Toolbars
- The Spreadsheet Itself
- Cells
- Format Data
- Spreadsheets act like a calculator by automatically doing calculations.
- Spreadsheets are used for tracking personal investments, budgeting, invoices, inventory tracking, statistical analysis, numerical modeling, address books, telephone books, printing labels, etc.
- Spreadsheets are used in almost every profession to calculate, graph, analyze and store information.
- Spreadsheets are used for What-if calculations. Change one number in a spreadsheet and all the calculations in a large spreadsheet will re-calculate, will automatically change.
- IF on the desktop, click > All Programs > OpenOffice.org 2.3 > OpenOffice.org Calc.
- IF you are in a OpenOffice program, click File > New > Spreadsheet.
- In either case a spreadsheet called appears on our screen.
Apache Openoffice Spreadsheet Tutorial
Main Menu Toolbar
Function Toolbar
The second toolbar down is the Function Toolbar. The Function Toolbar contains icons (pictures) to provide quick access to commands like New, Open, Print, Copy, Paste, etc. When you place your mouse cursor over any of the elements of a toolbar, the name of the element appears on your screen.
Move your cursor over the icon . (The word “New” appears. Clicking on opens a new spreadsheet.)
Formatting Toolbar
The third toolbar down is the Formatting Toolbar. The Formatting Toolbar has icons plus drop-down menus that allow you to select a font, font color, alignments, number formats, border options and background colors.
Formula Toolbar
Cells
Enter Data
- Click on the A1 cell (The cell at the very top left of the spreadsheet).
- Notice the heavy black border around the A1 cell. The heavy black border indicates that A1 is the active cell. (A is at the top of the first column and 1 is on the first row. Both are highlighted. The highlighting also indicates that A1 is the active cell.)
- Type Hello World and press Enter.
- The active cell is now A2. (The words “Hello World” are in A1.)
- When you type something in a cell and press Enter, what you typed is seen in that cell and the cell below becomes the next active cell.
Delete Data
- Click on A1 again.
- Press the Delete key. (The “Delete Contents” window appears.)
- Check the Delete all box then click OK. (“Hello World” is deleted from A1)
Format Data
Separate Thousands, Two Decimal Places, Red Negative Numbers
- Click cell A1. > Type the number -9999.129 > Press Enter. (The cursor moves to cell A2)
- Right-click cell A1. (A small menu appears) > click Format cells. (The “Format cells” window appears)
- Click Numbers tab. Under “Category”, click on Number. Under “Format”, click on -1,234.12. Click In the small box before “Negative numbers red”. (A check-mark appears in the box) > Click OK. (The number '-9,999.13” appears in cell A1.
Align Left
- Click Alignment tab. In the “Horizontal” pull-down menu, select Left. Click OK. (the numbers move to the left edge of the cell.)
NOTE
Openoffice Spreadsheet Data Practice Lessons
Tutorials are improved by input from users. We solicit your constructive criticism.
Openoffice Calc
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