What is a spreadsheet?
I suppose the most basic definition would be that a spreadsheet is a document arranged
into rows and columns. The nice thing about a spreadsheet is that it is easy to
differentiate between the cells when they are organized this way. Some of the great
things about Excel (and other similar programs) is that they have made it very easy to
organize and sort the data after it has already been typed in, various ways to format the
page to make it aesthetically pleasing, and other tools that are included in the software to
make Excel do much of the work for you (formulas, functions, charts, graphs, macros,
and much more).
As I mentioned, the spreadsheet is comprised of columns
and rows. As you can see, the columns are titled with
letters (if you need more than 26 columns Excel simply
uses two letters after it gets to Z – AA, AB, AC…), and
the rows are titled with numbers. Pretty much everything
about the spreadsheet can be modified, which we will
cover one step at a time.
How do I create a spreadsheet?
When you open Excel you’ll have multiple options, ensure
Excel Workbook is selected and click choose. The
spreadsheet will now be open, and at this point you may
type desired data into various cells. You may navigate
from one cell to another by clicking, using the arrows, or
by using the tab key to move right, or enter key to move
down.
Note: Most of the time in this course, you will be provided with spreadsheets with data
already typed in, so you will not have to do much data entry or make many brand new
documents.
