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Building Spreadsheets With AppleWorks AppleWorks is an integrated software package with word processing, spreadsheet, database, desktop publishing, graphics and telecommunications capabilities. Note: • Different versions operate slightly differently - these instructions were prepared using AppleWorks V5.0 • Prior to using these worksheets, you should have gone through the 4 page document, ‘Getting Started with AppleWorks’. • These pages cover some of the features of the AppleWorks spreadsheet module; there are many additional features of the program beyond what is formally covered here. • Although these instructions apply specifically to AppleWorks spreadsheet, its capabilities are similar to those of other spreadsheet programs such as Quattro Pro and Microsoft Excel. • As you work through the pages, you will create a spreadsheet in which to try out the ideas. Although a specific document is created in these exercises, feel free to make modifications to create a document more relevant to you! Spreadsheet Basics Starting a New Document Filling in Cells Formatting Cells Other Features Printing Creating Charts These worksheets contain a great deal of information and tips concerning the use of AppleWorks spreadsheets. As you work through these pages: Ask for help whenever you have difficulties; When in doubt, experiment; If you use the Undo Feature, it will only undo the last change that you made in your work. Remember to Save your work frequently. George MacRae - Rev. 2001 Page 1 Building Spreadsheets With AppleWorks Spreadsheet Basics Spreadsheet Cell Row Cell Contents Column What is a Spreadsheet? A spreadsheet can be described as a very intelligent chart, or table. • It is may be used to display information in an organized fashion. • It is capable of automatically performing simple and complex calculations on numbers; for example it could calculate a cumulative mark from individual test marks entered by a teacher. • Spreadsheets not only display information in tables, but may also be used to prepare graphs and charts using the information in Row the tables. Row A row is a horizontal section of a spreadsheet; each row is designated by a number. • Jim Brown's test marks are shown in row 3 of this spreadsheet. Column A column is a vertical section of a spreadsheet; each column is designated by a letter. • All marks for Test 2 are shown in column C Column of this spreadsheet. Cell A cell is an individual box on the spreadsheet • Jim Brown's mark on test 2 (72) is shown in the cell marking the intersection of column C and, row 3. • This cell is then designated as C3 Cell Contents Cells can contain Cell •numbers, •text, • simple formulae, or • functions. To illustrate each of these and learn how they work, you will now build a simple mark book spreadsheet that uses each type of cell. George MacRae - Rev. 2001 Page 2 Building Spreadsheets With AppleWorks Starting a New Document Planning Ahead Saving Creating a New Spreadsheet The Top Line Planning Ahead It is often far easier to create a spreadsheet with a little preplanning. • Consider what you are trying to accomplish and how you wish the information to be organized; Creating a New Spreadsheet Create a new empty Spreadsheet document in which to try out the ideas as you progress. • Launch the AppleWorks Program; • Select New from the File Menu; • Select Spreadsheet and make sure the button is turned on; • Click OK. Saving • First Save 1. Select Save As... from the File menu. 2. Name your document by filling in File name in the dialogue box. Remember this Name! (Call your spreadsheet Markbook) 3. Use the dialogue box to choose a location for the file (your personal space or a diskette). 4. Click Save on the dialogue box to complete the task. • Subsequent Saves Resaving your work regularly can ensure that you do not lose important work if your machine should unexpectedly crash. After the first ‘save’ you may resave simply by: 1. Selecting Save from the File Menu, or 2. Clicking the Save Icon from the tool bar. The Top Line Address Box: Indicates the cell (selected cell) into which you are currently entering information. Entry Bar: Shows the contents of the selected cell. You may edit information in the entry bar. Cancel Button: Reverts a cell that has been edited back to its former contents. Accept Button: Confirms that the edited content of the cell should be accepted. On the next pages we’ll enter some information into the spreadsheet... George MacRae - Rev. 2001 Page 3 Building Spreadsheets With AppleWorks Filling in Cells Cells can contain text, numbers, simple formulae, functions. Entering Text • Click in Cell A3, then type the name Jim Brown; notice that as you type it, the name will appear in the Entry Bar; • Either press Enter or click the Accept Button to place the name to the actual cell; • In a similar manner, enter three other students names in cells A4, A5 and A6. Adjusting Cell Width Cells may be resized so that the information better fits the space. • Move the cursor over the line separating the column header A and B - notice that it changes shape from an arrow to the shape shown to the right; • Press and hold the mouse button down, then drag this special cursor to the right - notice that this changes the width of all of the cells in column A to better fit the data. • In the same manner as above, enter the column heading for our table in cells B1 through to F1; • Make each of these columns narrower, but still wide enough to hold all the text that you typed with a little ‘white space’ left over. Entering Numbers Entering numbers is no different than entering text. In our example we have shown the test marks that four students achieved on three different tests. Also, in row 2, we have indicated the maximum mark for the test. i.e., Jim Brown got 28 out of 45 on Test 1 • Enter the data in these numerical cells into your database. George MacRae - Rev. 2001 Page 4 Building Spreadsheets With AppleWorks Filling in Cells (cont’d) Entering a Formula A formula is used to do calculations, usually involving values that are entered into cells. In our example, Jim achieved marks of 28, 72 and 40 on the three tests. Let’s have the spreadsheet calculate his total mark and place it in cell E3. • Click in cell E3 and enter an equal sign as a signal to the spreadsheet that you want a calculation performed here; • After the equal sign, type B3 + C3 +D3 to tell the computer that you want to calculate the sum of the numbers in these three cells; •Press Enter or click the Accept Button to complete the task; • Notice that the formula you typed appears in the Entry Bar and the calculated value appears in cell E3; • Type in an appropriate formula in cell E2 to calculate the maximum score possible for the 3 tests. Entering a Function A function is also used to do calculations. A function uses words like SUM, AVERAGE, SQRT (square root) to perform the appropriate calculation, usually done using adjacent cells. We will use the function SUM to calculate Helen Carter’s total mark. • Click in cell E4 and enter an equal sign to signal the spreadsheet that you want a calculation performed here; • Type SUM(B4..D4) to indicate that you wish the computer to calculate the sum of the numbers in all the cells from B4 to D4. (A group of cells is called a RANGE); •Press Enter or click the Accept Button to complete the task; • Repeat the process to find the total mark for the other two students. More Formulae • To calculate Jim’s mark out of 100, you must divide his total mark, E3, by the total marks possible, E2, and multiply by 100. Place this formula in cell F3; • Calculate the other students’ composite marks in a similar fashion; • The marks that you have calculated look strange - the number of digits must be reduced... George MacRae - Rev. 2001 Page 5 Building Spreadsheets With AppleWorks Formatting Cells Rounding Off Numbers To format the contents of a cell, click on the cell and select the Format menu. Many options are available, but we will focus on Number. • Click on Jim’s final mark (Cell F3); • Select Number from the Format menu; • Click Fixed in the dialogue box that will appear; • Change the precision from 2 to 0. This will change the number of points after the decimal point from 2 to 0; • You may click Apply to see the results of this change, then click OK to close the dialogue box. The Format menu also provides many options for customizing text in a cell (Font, Size, Style, Colour). It allows the creation of borders around cells or groups of cells. It allows the adjustment of Column Width and Row Heights. You may wish to experiment with some of these features! Other Features These pages provide a basic set of instructions for building simple spread sheets; there are many other features and shortcuts that you may learn about in creating a spreadsheet. Some that you may wish to pursue further include • Inserting or Deleting Cells • Copying information from one cell to others using the Fill Right or Fill Down Commands Printing Care should be taken when printing a spreadsheet. The entire spreadsheet may cover a very large number of pages. Before Printing... • Select Set Print Range from the Options Menu; a menu will allow you to print All Cells containing data, or to print a specific range of cells. • After Selecting Print from the File menu, note the Headings and Grid portion of the dialogue box where you may further customize the printout by adding or removing column (A, B, C, etc.) and row heading (1, 2, 3, etc.) and remove the grid.

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