The horizontal rows on a spreadsheet are numbered starting with row one. The vertical columns are lettered starting with the letter-A. If you have more columns on your spreadsheet than 26 (A-Z), the next columns have double letters on them (the letter-A plus the letters of the alphabet from AA to AZ). Each rectangle is called a cell. The cells going vertically (up and down) are called a column.
The cells going horizontally (across) are called a row.
Since columns are marked with letters and rows are marked with numbers, we use the letter of the column and the number of the row to tell which cell we are talking about. This letter/number is called the cell's address.
When you save your work on a floppy or hard disk, you must give your worksheet a filename. A filename is a name used to save and retrieve your worksheet. You may not use spaces in your filename. When you choose a filename, you should choose something that helps you know what is in the worksheet. For example, if you are saving your household budget, you might want to call it BUDGET. Your filename can be up to eight (8) characters in length and may be followed by a two- or three-character extender. An extender is a 3-character ending to a filename to indicate what type of file your worksheet is.
Once you have saved a worksheet, you may want to get it back so you can edit it, so you can read it, or so you can print it. There are two words used to get a worksheet back into the computer's memory: To open a file means to bring the file from a computer disk into the computer's memory for editing or printing. To retrieve a file also means to bring the file from a computer disk into the computer's memory for editing or printing. Generally, the word "open" is used for Windows programs and the word "retrieve" is used for DOS-based programs.
When you print a worksheet, you must first load instructions into the computer so it knows what kind of printer you have. These instructions are special codes saved in a file and are called printer drivers. Before you print anything, be certain to check the printer driver -- be sure the correct printer driver is loaded.
Before you can print in many spreadsheets, you need to understand about ranges. A range is a notation giving the upper, left-hand cell address and the bottom, right-hand cell address of the worksheet. You always place two periods or a colon between the two cell addresses. An example of a range might be a1..d7.
A good spreadsheet program will come with an instruction manual telling you how to work that program. This instruction manual is called the program's documentation. A good spreadsheet program will also come with online help. Online help is instructions telling you how to work a program but those instructions are in the program instead of in a printed manual. You "retrieve" the online help instructions and read them on the screen. If you want to do something with your spreadsheet (like print a document) and you don't know how to do it, you can either read the documentation or use the online help.
There are five kinds of things you can place in a worksheet's cell: a label, a value, a date, a formula, and a function. A label is an entry that is considered as words or text instead of numbers. Some examples of labels are your first name, your last name, and the city where you live.
A value is an entry that is entirely numbers and will be used for mathematical calculations. Some examples of values are your age, the number of people in your family, and the cost of a new pair of shoes. You can also enter a cell's address rather than typing the value found in that cell.
A formula is a mathematical computation such as 34+67 (34 add 67) or such as 356-23 (356 subtract 23). Because a spreadsheet can work with formulas, a spreadsheet is very much like a calculator. When you enter a formula in a cell, the formula itself will not appear in the cell -- instead, the answer to the formula appears in the cell.
A function is a special mathematical computation such as finding an average or calculating the sum of several numbers. There are many functions available in a spreadsheet -- the better the spreadsheet, the more functions you will see.
There are many things you can do to format a worksheet. You can put commas in large numbers, you can format dollar signs and percent signs, you can change fonts, you can make titles, you can draw lines, you can shade cells, you can change column widths, and you can align the cells.
