Understanding Spreadsheets

A spreadsheet is nothing more than a giant list. Your list can contain just about any type of data you can think of text, numbers, and even dates. You can take any of the numbers on your list and use them to calculate new numbers. You can sort the items on your list, pretty them up, and print the important points in a report. You can even graph your numbers in a pie, line, or bar chart!

All spreadsheet programs work in pretty much the same fashion. In a spreadsheet, everything is stored in little boxes called cells. Your spreadsheet is divided into lots of these cells, each located in a specific location on a giant grid made of rows and columns. Each single cell represents the intersection of a particular row and column.

As you can see in Figure 14.1, each column has an alphabetic label (A, B, C, and so on). Each row, on the other hand, has a numeric label (1, 2, 3, and so on). The location of each cell is the combination of its column and row locations. For example, the cell in the upper-left corner of the spreadsheet is in column A and row 1; therefore, its location is signified as A1. The cell to the right of it is B1, and the cell below A1 is A2. The location of the selected, or active, cell is displayed in the Name box.

Figure 14.1. An Excel spreadsheet divided into lots of rows and columns.

Next to the Name box is the Formula bar, which echoes the contents of the active cell. You can type data directly into either the Formula bar or active cell.