Editing the Spreadsheet Content

The process of adding and editing spreadsheet content are familiar. Type numbers, text, or formulas into cells; delete cell contents with <Backspace> or <Del>; replace text by highlighting it and typing new text over it. The Edit menu contains familiar items, such as copy, cut, paste, and find and replace. You can insert a row or a column by right-clicking a number or letter. You can insert cells by right-clicking a cell.

Calc provides an automatic fill feature. When you select a cell, the lower-right corner shows a small box. If you drag the box over some cells, the contents of the cell are inserted into all the cells highlighted. If the box contains a number or a month, the value is incremented in each cell.

You can split your window, either vertically or horizontally, so you can edit two parts of the spreadsheet at once. Highlight any cell (except A1) in row 1 to split vertically or in column A to split horizontally. Click View. Select Split Window. The window splits at the selected cell. You can drag the window separator to resize the windows. To return to a single window, select View->Split Window again.

You can make any section of rows or columns non-scrolling to keep the labels on the screen. Select a cell below the row that you don't want to scroll and to the right of the column you don't want to scroll. Click Window. Select Freeze. For instance, if you select cell B2, both row 1 and column A will stay on the screen when you scroll. If you select cell A2, only row 1 will stay on the screen.

OpenOffice provides the Navigator, a tool useful for moving around in the spreadsheet and moving elements of the spreadsheet to different locations. Use of the Navigator is described in Chapter 11, in the section "Editing Document Contents."

You can add graphics to a spreadsheet, just as you can to a document. Graphics can be inserted from another file or drawn directly into the spreadsheet using the OpenOffice drawing tools. Graphics in spreadsheets are handled the same as graphics in word processing documents, as described in Chapter 11.

You can create and edit charts in your spreadsheet. Highlight the cells you want to include in the chart. Click Insert. Select Chart. A wizard opens that allows you to select the type of chart (bar chart, pie chart, etc.), labels, and other features and creates the chart. When you select a chart in your spreadsheet, the main toolbar (on the left) changes to provide several buttons that change the appearance of the chart. For more changes, you can double-click any element in the chart to see an element-specific window that allows you to change the borders, colors, fonts, labels, transparency, etc.