Spreadsheet - organizes information or data

Spreadsheets Basics Overview

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Online Tutorial

There is a wonderful online tutorial for spreadsheets basics that is for teachers at:

http://www.k12.hi.us/~tethree/01-02/tutorials/ss/

The lesson is interactive and covers everything listed below

Lesson

1. Open the spreadsheet program you are working in (i.e. StarOffice, AppleWorks, or Excel)

2. Give a tour of the window showing students the following parts of a spreadsheet:

Columns - vertical groups of cells

In the example, Column B would have the information about Mercury

3. Create the following spreadsheet to practice these new skills. (You could survey your class or use the numbers provided.)

Favorite Ice Cream
Flavor	Boys	Girls
Chocolate	12	23
Vanilla	18	9
Strawberry	9	5

4. Make it look good using some of these formatting tips. (Note: StarOffice, Appleworks and Excel all have different methods for formatting. Most have buttons on the toolbar to perform these functions. Refer to the Help Menu for additional needs.)

Cell Width - click and drag between the column heading to readjust the width of a cell

Font and Font Size - in the above example I changed the font to Comic Sans

Bold, Italic, Underline - headings look good in bold so they stand out against the data

Left - flavor titles are aligned left

Center - headings (Flavor, Boys, Girls) are centered

Right - would align text on right side of cell

Merge and Center - the title (Favorite Ice Cream) is merged across three cells and centered in the middle

Borders - the black lines between the cells are made with the borders

Cell Color - fills in color in the background of the cell like the burgundy behind the main title

Font Color - color of the text like the mint green of the main title

5. Formulas - used to perform calculations on the data

	A	B	C
Favorite Ice Cream
1	Flavor	Boys	Girls
2	Chocolate	12	23
3	Vanilla	18	9
4	Strawberry	9	5
5	Totals:	=B2+B3+B4

Formulas always begin with the = sign
Operation Symbols:

Addition +

Subtraction -

Multiplication *

Division /

Use cell name (i.e. B2) to indicate value in that cell
For example, to find the total number of boys that voted you would add the values of cells B2, B3 and B4. The formula would be =B2+B3+B4.
Press enter when you finish the formula to see the result in the cell
There are many formulas available beyond these simple tasks. See the Help Menu for additional suggestions.

Vocabulary

Spreadsheet - organizes information or data

Table - an organized group of data, sometimes tables are called worksheets

Cells - a box that holds a single piece of information

Row - horizontal group of cells

Columns - vertical group of cells

Formulas - used to perform calculations on the data

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