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Entering And Deleting Data In A Spreadsheet

Tutorial donated by Wayne Tschirhard

How To Use This Tutorial

We suggest you do this tutorial in the following sequence;

• Quickly read the Table Of Contents to get an idea of what is in this tutorial.

• Read the “What Are Spreadsheets” paragraph.

• Open a spreadsheet to see the layout of a Calc spreadsheet,

• Enter Data as suggested by this tutorial.

History And Use of Spreadsheets

The term spreadsheet was derived from a large piece of paper that accountants used for business finances. The accountant would spread information like costs, payments, taxes, income, etc out on a single sheet to get a complete financial overview.

Today, spreadsheet programs like Calc are used in almost every profession to calculate, graph, analyze and store information. Spreadsheets act like a calculator by automatically doing complicated calculations. Spreadsheets are used for tracking personal investments, budgeting, invoices, inventory tracking, statistical analysis, numerical modeling, address books, printing labels, etc.

Open A Spreadsheet

IF on the desktop, click > All Programs > OpenOffice.org 2.1 > OpenOffice.org Calc. IF you are in OpenOffice.org Writer, click File > New > Spreadsheet. (The spreadsheet called appears on our screen.

The Calc Toolbars

Main Menu Toolbar

The first toolbar is the Main Menu toolbar that gives you access to many of the basic commands used in Calc.

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

The fourth toolbar down is the Formula Toolbar. The Formula Toolbar contains the Name Box drop-down menu and a long white box called the Input Line.

Note: If your Toolbars look different, it is because these toolbars are in 800x600 screen resolution and the last eight icons are not shown but are available by clicking on the on the far right of the toolbar.

Spreadsheet Location

The rest of the window contains the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is divided into rows and columns. Rows are numbered from 1 to 32,000. Columns are labeled with letters from A to IV.

The scroll bars on the right and bottom are used to move around the worksheet. Click on the downward facing image at the lower, right corner of your screen. (Lower parts of your spreadsheet appear on your screen and the row numbers on the left side of your screen increase.)

Enter Data

The rectangles you see are called cells. A cell is the fundamental element of a worksheet. This is where the action takes place. Every cell has an address that is determined by the letter of the column and the number of the row that the cell is in. Addresses are written in the form A2, B16.

Click on a cell on your screen. Notice the black box and the darker gray shading on the column and row labels. The black box identifies the active cell, or the one that will receive whatever you type. A cell can contain text, numbers or formulas. Let's enter something into cell A1:

1. Click on the A1 cell (The cell at the very top left of the spreadsheet).

2. Notice the black rectangle around the A1 cell. The A and the 1 are highlighted.

3. Type Hello World and press Enter.

4. The active cell is now A2. (The words “Hello World” are in A1.)

5. When you type something in a cell and press Enter, or Tab, or click the left mouse button or use one of the arrow keys, whatever you typed is entered into that cell.

Enter Data Into More Than One Spreadsheet At The Same Time

Method 1: Using Control Key

1. While holding down the Ctrl (Control) key, click on the numbered tabs. Sheet1, then click on Sheet2, then click on Sheet3. Release the Ctrl key. (All 3 numbered tabs now have a white background. The numbered tab on the current sheet will have the word Sheet in bold)
2. In cell A1 type the word test then press Enter. (The word test will be entered in cell A1 on all 3 of the spreadsheets)
3. To stop adding data into three Sheets, hold down the Ctrl key then click on the Sheet tab for each of the sheets.

   Method 2: Using "Select All Sheets"

4. Right-click on one of the numbered tabs, Sheet1, Sheet2, etc. The Menu below appears.

2. Click Select All Sheets. (There is no indication that anything happened.)

3. In cell A2, type the word test2 then press Enter. (The word, test2, will be entered in cell A2 on all the spreadsheets)

4. To stop adding data into the Sheets, hold down the Ctrl key then click on the Sheet tab for each of the sheets.

Delete Data

1. Click on A1 again.

2. Press the Delete key. (The “Delete Contents” window appears.)

3. Check the Delete all box and click OK. (Make a note of the delete options in the “Delete Contents” window.)

Delete Data From More Than One Spreadsheet At The Same Time

Method 1: Using Control Key

1. While holding down the Ctrl (Control) key, click on the numbered tabs. Sheet1, then click on Sheet2, then click on Sheet3. Release the Ctrl key. (All 3 numbered tabs now have a white background. The numbered tab on the current sheet will have the word Sheet in bold)
2. Click on A2.

3. Press the Delete key. (The “Delete Contents” window appears.)

4. Check the Delete all box and click OK. (The word, test, is no longer on the sheets.)

Method 2: Using "Select All Sheets"

1. Right-click on one of the numbered tabs, Sheet1, Sheet2, etc. (The Menu below appears.)

2. Click Select All Sheets. (There is no indication that anything happened.)

3. Click on A2.

4. Press the Delete key. (The “Delete Contents” window appears.)

5. Check the Delete all box and click OK. (The word, "test2", is no longer on the sheets.)

Select Cells

There are many ways to select cells in a worksheet. (To unselect the cells, click anywhere on the Spreadsheet.) The primary ways are listed below:

By Dragging

1. Click a single cell with the left mouse button.

2. Click the left mouse button and drag the cursor over many cells. (over Row(s), column(s)

By Columns And Rows

1. Click on a column label to select a column. (Click on the gray A column label.)

2. Click on a row label to select a row. (Click on the gray 1 row label.)

By Selecting All Cells In A Spreadsheet

Click on the empty box that is above row 1 and to the left of column A.

Select Sheets (Pages)

1. If the sheet tab that you need is shown, you can click on the sheet tab with the sheet tab number, , to select a sheet. If you have more than three sheets (sheet tabs 1, 2, 3, 4) and you are on sheet tab 4, you will only see sheet tabs 2, 3, 4. To get to sheet tab 1, you will have to use the bar.

2. The bar has to be used when you have more than three sheets in the spreadsheet.  Click on the bar at the bottom left on the spreadsheet, (The first arrowhead, , will take you to the beginning of the sheets (pages), the second and third will take you to the previous sheet, , or to the next sheet, , the fourth arrowhead, , will take you to the last sheet.)

Add A Column Of Numbers For The Total

By A Simple Entry

1. Click on A1 to make it the active cell.

2. Type 12.5 and press Enter. (A2 becomes the active cell.)

3. Type 23 and press Enter. (A3 becomes the active cell.)

4. Type 1000 and press Enter. (A4 becomes the active cell.)

5. On the Formula Toolbar, click on the Function, , icon . (The equal sign “=” appears in A4)

6. Click on A1 (A red line appears around cell A1) Press and keep holding down the Shift key then press the + key. Release the Shift key.

7. Click on A2. Press and keep holding down the Shift key then press the + key. Release the Shift key.

8. Click on A3. Press Enter. The answer, 1035.5, appears in A4. (The cursor moves down to cell A5.)

By The Input Line

1. Click on A4.

2. Press Delete. (The “Delete Contents” window appears. Make sure the “Delete all“ box is checked.)

3. Press OK.

4. Click on the Input Line.

5. Click on the Function, , icon on the Formula Toolbar. Type =A1+A2+A3.

6. Press Enter. The answer, 1035.5, appears in A4. (The cursor moves down to cell A5.)

By Using The Sum Command

When a very large number of cells are included in the column to be added, the Sum command is more efficient.

1. Click on A4. To clear cell A4, press the Delete key. (The “Delete Contents” window appears.) Check the Delete all box and click OK.

2. Type =SUM(. (To do this type the = key, the word, sum, and the opening parenthesis, “(“. Click just after "SUM", then press the shift key and the number “9” key [Shift-9] to get the opening parenthesis..

3. Click on A1 and drag down to cell A3. (To drag, hold down the left mouse button and move the cursor over the desired cells “=Sum(A1;A3” appears in "A4".)

4. Type the closing parenthesis “ )” ( Click after the "A3", then press the shift key and the number "0" key [Shift-0] to get the closing parenthesis. In “A4”, the complete command,"=SUM(A1:A3)", appears.)

5. Press Enter. The answer, 1035.5, appears in A4 (The cursor moves down to cell "A5".)

By Using The Sum, Σ , Icon

1. Click on A4. To clear cell A4, press the Delete key. (The “Delete Contents” window appears.) Check the Delete all box and click OK.

2. Click on the Sum, Σ, icon on the Formula Toolbar just left of the Input Line (Σ is the mathematics symbol for sum. The “Function”, , icon changes to the “Accept”, , icon.)

3. Click the Accept, , icon (green check mark).

The Sum, Σ, icon will automatically use all of the cells above the active cell.

Cell Range

In our tutorial, the SUM function appears as SUM(A1:A3). The A1:A3 in the parenthesis is called a cell range. It is shorthand for "from A1 to A3".

Insert Sheet, Delete Sheets, Rename Sheets, Move/Copy Sheets, And Select All Sheets

Insert Sheets

1. If more sheets are needed, click on the blank tab after Sheet 3 to quickly add a sheet. (The "Insert Sheet" window appears.).

2. Another method to insert a sheet is to right-click on one of the tabs. (A menu appears.)

3. Click on Insert Sheet... (The "Insert Sheet" window appears.).

4. Under Position, you can select Before current sheet or After current sheet. Under Sheet, you can select New sheet, select the number of new sheets you want to add to your spreadsheet, and enter a Name for the sheet. Another selection is From file. You can use the Browse button to select a file.

5. Click OK. (The "Insert Sheet" window closes.)

Delete Sheets

1. Right-click on one of the numbered tabs. (The menu in the section, "Insert Sheets", Step 2 appears.)

2. Click Delete... (The message below appears.)

3. Click Yes to permanently delete the current sheet or No to cancel deleting the sheet. (The message closes.)

Rename Sheets

1. Right-click on one of the numbered tabs. (The menu in the section, "Insert Sheets", Step 2 appears.)

2. Click Rename... (The "Rename Sheet" window appears.)

3. In the dialog box under Name, name this sheet, Working Sheet.

4. Click OK.

Move/Copy Sheets

1. Right-click on one of the numbered tabs. (The menu in the section, "Insert Sheets", Step 2 appears.)

2. Click Move/Copy Sheets...(The 'Move/Copy Sheet' window appears.)

3. In the dialog box under To document, click on the , you are given the choice of Untitled 1 or -new document-.

4. In the dialog box under Insert before, you can select where you want to move or copy the sheet. Click Sheet1. ("Sheet2" appears before "Sheet1".)

NOTE

Last modified: Friday, 06-Jul-2007 13:56:06 EDT

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution2.5 License.