AppleWorks 5

Spreadsheet Basics SPREADSHEET BASICS

Lesson Objective: Able to create, format, sort, and print a spreadsheet for professional use.

Review of Key Concepts: Formatting is applied only to selected text and objects. To select text, double- click it or click and drag the cursor. To select an object, click on it. To select multiple objects, hold down the shift key and click on the desired objects. Choose command ()-A from the Edit menu to select all objects or text. Use keyboard shortcuts whenever possible.

Spreadsheet Overview

Use a spreadsheet document or frame to organize text and numbers into rows and columns.

Spreadsheets are particularly useful for entering numbers that you want to organize and analyze, either for [grades] or for general information. For example, teachers can use a spreadsheet as an electronic gradebook or to help them calculate their students’ semester and/or final letter grades. The following is a brief overview of AppleWorks’ spreadsheet environment.

First, notice that the spreadsheet’s menu (see below) is different from the word processing and database menus. You can activate this menu by either opening a new spreadsheet document or by clicking the spreadsheet tool in the tool palette (right) and creating a spreadsheet frame within the word processing or graphics environments.

Calculations

In the spreadsheet environment, a cell is where a column and a row intersect. Letters denote columns while numbers denote rows. Therefore, cell references always contain a letter and a number, e.g., A1, B2, C3, etc.

AppleWorks 5 Spreadsheet Basics Page 48 By choosing formulas (called functions) to insert (paste) into designated cells, AppleWorks can perform simple or complex calculations by reading the cell references contained in the formula (function). That’s the essential function of a function!! To perform simple or complex calculations, follow these steps:

Open a spreadsheet document and then enter your text and/or numeric data into A B C cells. In the example to the right, students’ 1 Student Score 2 grades on a test will be averaged. 3 Jon Doe 30 To enter data, click on the desired cell in 4 Larry Moe 90 the spreadsheet. AppleWorks will create a 5 Curly Link 68 data field above the ruler for you to type 6 your data. In the example below, notice that 7 Class Avg. 62.67 the label “Student” is entered into the cell A1. After you type your data, enter it into the selected cell by either pressing RETURN, ENTER, or by clicking on the check mark to the left of the data field. (If you want to cancel your entry, click on the (x) to the left of the check mark.) The final result is seen in the sample spreadsheet to the above right.

NOTE: You can format text and numbers in cells just like you would in the word processing environment. Select the cell(s) by clicking on it (them), pull down the Format menu, and choose the appropriate formatting tool(s).

To input numeric data, select the cell by clicking on it and enter the number (see right). Press RETURN, ENTER, or click the check mark to the left of the field to accept the entry.

Next, you need to create a formula (function). To do so, click on the cell in which you want to paste the formula (function). Then click the Function sign to the left of the spreadsheet text entry field

The Paste Function dialog box appears (see below). Scroll through the functions until you find the appropriate one. In this case, we want AppleWorks to average students’ grades, so the AVERAGE function is selected. Click OK.

AppleWorks 5 Spreadsheet Basics Page 49 The AVERAGE function appears in the data field (see above).

Select “number 1, number 2,…” and change them to reflect the range of cells that you want to average (see right). In this case, the range of cells would be B3 to B5 (refer to the spreadsheet on the previous page). When finished, press RETURN, ENTER, or click on the check mark. Notice that you use two periods (..) to denote a range of cells and that your range must be contained in parentheses.

NOTE: If your range of cells is: (a) incomplete; (b) not contained in parentheses; or (3) the pasted function does not begin with an equal sign (=), the following message appears when you press RETURN, ENTER, or click on the check mark (see below):

Notes on Calculations:

Configuring Numbers in Cells

By default, the results of your formula (function) are displayed as general numbers with several decimal places. However, this may not always be desirable. For example, you may not want decimal places showing in your results. Changing how the results of your calculations are displayed is easy. Simply do the following:

Pull down the menu and choose Numbers…

The Numeric dialog box will open (see next page). In this case, we want the class average to be displayed as a fixed number with two decimal places. To get this result, click the Fixed radio button and enter “2” in the Precision box. Click OK. Notice that the class average displayed in cell B7 below is now

AppleWorks 5 Spreadsheet Basics Page 50 configured exactly as specified in the Numeric dialog box, i.e., it is a fixed number and has two decimal places behind it.

Notes on Configuring Numbers:

Filling Cells

You will often need to copy a formula (function) from one cell to several other cells, either in a row or a column. This is called filling cells and AppleWorks makes it easy to do.

First, input your data. Then select an appropriate cell and paste the desired function into it. In this

case, the AVERAGE A B C D function is pasted into cell 1 Student Score Student Avg. D3 (see right). 2 3 Jon Doe 30 54 42 Enter the range of cells to 4 Larry Moe 90 63 be averaged into the 5 Curly Link 68 35 function, in this case, cells 6 B3 to C3 (see right). 7 Class Avg. 62.67 RETURN, ENTER, or click on the check mark. Configure the displayed results of the formula, if desired, by using the Numeric dialog box.

Copy the newly created formula (function) in cell D3 to cells D4 and D5. To do this, select the formula (function) to be copied (cell D3) by clicking on it and then drag the spreadsheet tool over the desired cells to select them. In this case, the destination cells would be D4 and D5 (see right).

Pull down the Calculate menu and choose Fill Down. AppleWorks automatically copies (fills) your formula to the selected cells (see far right). In doing so, it changes the cell range within the formula to calculate the new rows of cells. In this case, the range in the formula (function) copied into cells D4 and D5 would change from B3..C3 to B4..C4 and B5..C5 respectively. This is called making the formula (function) relative. If you want a cell number or range to remain constant within a formula (function), you must enter a dollar sign ($) in front of the cell letter(s) and number(s) (see next page). AppleWorks 5 Spreadsheet Basics Page 51 NOTE: You can also fill cells to the right (but not up or to the left).

Notes on Filling Cells:

Sorting and Locking Cells

AppleWorks allows you to sort cells from high to low (descending order) or from low to high (ascending order). For example, you could have AppleWorks sort your students by their GPAs in descending order. Sorting cells is easy, provided you follow AppleWorks’ quirky sorting rules. To sort a row or column of cells, do the following:

Select the cells you want to sort, in this case, rows 3, 4, and 5 (see right).

Pull down the Calculate menu and choose Sort… (see below left).

The Sort dialog box opens (see below). Since we want to sort students by their GPAs and since their GPAs start in cell D3, we would enter “D3” in the Order Keys Field. Click on the Descending radio button and the Vertical Direction radio button. This will sort scores in the selected column from high to low. Click OK.

The selected cells are then sorted in descending order (see right).

AppleWorks 5 Spreadsheet Basics Page 52 There are times when you may want to lock your cells to protect against accidental erasure of data or functions contained in them. To lock cells, simply select the ones you want to protect, pull down the Options menu, and choose Lock Cells.

NOTE: Locked cells cannot be sorted.

Notes on Sorting and Locking Cells:

Displaying Your Spreadsheet

AppleWorks gives you great flexibility in displaying your spreadsheet. For example, you may wish to remove column and row headings. To change your spreadsheet’s look, do the following:

Pull down the Options menu and choose Display… The Display dialog box appears (see below).

Select or deselect the desired options and then click OK. That’s all there is to it.

Notes on Spreadsheet Display:

Displaying Charts

Using the Make Chart tool, you can quickly create a variety of colored displays to graphically represent your data results. In this example, we will create a bar chart to display individual student’s averages (cells B3..B5). To create a chart, do the following:

AppleWorks 5 Spreadsheet Basics Page 53 Select the cells containing the data that you want displayed in your chart (see left). Pull down the Options menu and choose Make Chart… (see right).

The Chart Options dialog box appears (see below left). Click the Bar icon under Gallery and then click the Axes button.

A new Chart Options dialog box opens (see below right). Create titles for the Y axis label (the vertical line) and the X axis label (the horizontal line). If you want tick marks displayed, open the Tick Marks pop-up menu and configure as desired. You can also indicate whether you want grid lines to appear on your chart. In this case, we will not display grid lines. Finally, you can determine the incremental number range that appears on the axes. Simply type in the desired numbers in the Minimum, Maximum, and Step size (increment) boxes. For example, if you wanted a number range from 0-100 displayed in increments of 10 to appear on the Y axis, you would enter “0” in the Minimum box, “100” in the Maximum box, and “10” in the Step size box. However, in this case, we will let AppleWorks fill in the numbers and their increments on the Y axis.

Next, click the Labels button. A new Chart Options dialog box opens (see right) that allows you to title your chart and configure the title’s appearance. In this case, the title of the chart is “Psychology” and it will appear centered horizontally in a shadowed box at the top of the chart. We have chosen not to display a legend since there is a relatively small amount of data to be displayed.

AppleWorks 5 Spreadsheet Basics Page 54 Finally, click the Series button. Another Chart Options dialog box opens (see right). If you prefer to have the bars in your chart numerically labeled, click the Label data box. You can also change the display of your chart by pulling down the Display as window. In this case, we have chosen to display numeric data in our bars. Click OK.

Psychology

80 P 70 e r 60 c 50 e 40 n 76.5 30 t 51.5 a 20 42 g 10 e 0 Jon Doe Curly Link Larry Moe Students

A new chart appears (see above left) that conforms to the specifications just entered into our Chart Options dialog boxes. The chart becomes a graphic object by clicking on it and can be moved, resized, copied, pasted, etc.

NOTE: Your chart will be automatically updated every time you update the spreadsheet cells used to create it, provided that you have the chart and the spreadsheet in the same document. Pretty slick.

AppleWorks 5 Spreadsheet Basics Page 55