SC ICT CertificationLevel 1

SC ICT CertificationLevel 1

07 Spreadsheets

By Ross Parker

Spreadsheet• wikipedia.org: “A spreadsheet is a

computer application that simulates a paper worksheet. It displays multiple cells that together make up a grid consisting of rows and columns, each cell containing either alphanumeric text or numeric values. A spreadsheet cell may alternatively contain a formula that defines how the contents of that cell is to be calculated from the contents of any other cell (or combination of cells) each time any cell is updated.”

3 of many

MS Excel 2007

Replacing Word 2003

De facto standard

Experimental interface

Part of MS Office suite

Desktop application

Costly

OpenOffice Calc

Open standardsTraditional interface

Part of OpenOffice suiteDesktop applicationFree/open Source

Free (gratis)

Google Docs

Part of Google Docs suiteWeb-based application

docs.google.comIntegrated collaboration

Limited FunctionalityFree (gratis)

MS EXCEL 2007, OPENOFFICE CALC, GOOGLE DOCS

Basics

OpenOffice Calc

1.

2.

3.

New Document

MS Excel 2007

1.

2.

Google Docs

1.

2.

Working with cells• Select cell: single left click cell

• Enter new data: type in selected cell

• Edit existing data: double left click cell or F2

• Highlight multiple cells– Mouse

1. Hold left button down2. Drag mouse over cells

– Keyboard• Use arrow keys to go to first cell• Hold shift key down• Use arrow keys to go to last cell

1

l

MS Excel 2007

Formatting Cells

Cut, copy, paste

Font, size

Formatting Alignment

Colour Styles

OpenOffice CalcCut, copy, paste

Font, size Formatting Alignment BordersStyles

Google Docs Font, size

Formatting AlignmentColour

Borders

Number formatting

Merge cells

Number formatting

ColoursMerge cells

Borders Merge cells

Cut, copy, paste

Number formatting

Saving and conversion

• Save regularly• Organise files using folders• Many formats:

– .xls– .xlsx– .ods– .csv

• .xls is defacto standard• Standards are not always compatible

Current worksheet tabs

Tabs• wikipedia.org: “In the area of graphical user

interfaces, a tabbed document interface (TDI) is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs to navigate between them.”

• Tabs are becoming more prominent in computing, but are a staple of spreadsheets.

Tab scroll bar

New worksheet

MS EXCEL 2007Intermediate Focus

Printing

• Print only when needed.• Consider:

– Which printer– Split sheet into pages– Quality– Color vs greyscale– Duplex– Page Range– Number of copies– Pages per sheet

View

• Control what you see:

NormalPage Layout

Page Break Layout Zoom

• Cells are referred to by:– Letter (horizontal axis)– Number (vertical axis)

• If a cell is copied, references are updated relative to the new location.– To prevent this, use the $ symbol

• Cell reference to other sheets• Cell reference to other documents

Cell reference

This is cell B2

This is cell $B$2

Formulas

• Formulas allow data to be manipulated.• Some sample formulas:

=1+2+3+4+5

=A1+B1

=SUM(C1:C6)

=AVERAGE(C1:C6)

=IF(C6=42,"Y","N")

• Formulas can be “nested”=IF(C6=42,AVERAGE(C1:C6),"N")

• Troubleshooting formulas is tough

FormulaNested formula

Charts• Enter and highlight data• Select a chart type

• Use “Chart Tools” to edit the chart

• Allows data organisation• Enter and highlight data• Apply a sort or a filter

Sort and filter

• Allows automatic colour marking• Enter and highlight data• Click on “Conditional formatting”

• Choose your formatting type (you may be prompted for more information)

• View output

Conditional Formatting

MS EXCEL 2007Advanced Focus (optional, not assessed)

Advanced Features

• Comments: mark documents with suggestions

• Track changes: work together asynchronously

• Data tools: powerful data manipulation

• External data: connect to databases

• Forms: enable data input (Google Docs is much easier on this, and allows online submission)

• Macros: automate process

Licensing• All original work used here is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share

Alike 3.0 Unported license. For more details please look at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.

• This license has been chosen to permit a high degree of sharing, whilst protecting the author’s control as to how the content is used.

• Please respect this license and use accordingly!• Recycled and borrowed works from other sources are used under appropriate

licenses, which are not affected by this license. The original source is always given. • All original work created by Ross Parker (Sha Tin College, English Schools

Foundation, Hong Kong), except where specified.