Troubleshooting Spreadsheets

Following are useful ways to troubleshoot and fix problems with spreadsheets.

Calculated Amounts Are Incorrect

There could be a few causes for calculated amounts that are incorrect.

• If your spreadsheet contains numbers that don't show decimal places, Calc rounds numbers to the nearest dollar, throwing off calculated amounts in the spreadsheet Simply add decimal places to cells . See Quick Decimal Control on page 540.

• If your spreadsheet contains links to data in other sheets or other Calc files, make sure you update the links to that data so that the most current data is shown. See Updating Linked Sheets on page 522.

• If you used automatic fill to enter spreadsheet data automatically, make sure your relative and absolute cell references are set correctly. See Relative and Absolute Cell References on page 568.

Showing Formulas in Cells

You can switch from displaying calculated amounts to displaying the actual formulas used to generate values. This helps you better see relationships among cells.

Choose Tools > Options > Spreadsheet > Contents, select the Formulas option, and click OK.

Tracing Precedents , Dependents, and Errors

You can have Calc display arrows to and from a selected cell, pointing to the other cells that the current cell references, called precedents , or the cells that reference the current cell, called dependents . Tracing precedents, dependents, and errors help troubleshoot calculated amounts by showing you exactly which cells are used in a calculation.

If a cell contains an error, Calc's error tracing can point to the cell(s) causing the error.

For more information, see Pointing to Cell References and Errors on page 614.

Value Highlighting

Use Calc's value highlighting feature to visually set off different types of elements in a spreadsheet to help you differentiate between calculated amounts, values entered manually, and text.

Choose View > Value Highlighting to turn value highlighting on and off. See Value Highlighting on page 615 for more information.

Value highlighting is a great troubleshooting tool to help you better see different spreadsheet elements, which you can use in conjunction with other troubleshooting tools like tracing precedents and dependents.

Printing Problems

See Things that Control Spreadsheet Printing on page 624. In addition, be sure you've followed the instructions in Chapter 4, Printer Setup and Printing , on page 53.