Let’s get to the know the basic vocabulary. Here are some other common terms we’ll use throughout this course.
A spreadsheet is made up of columns and rows to organize data.
Columns are vertical and hold a data value, whereas rows are the horizontal data value holders.
A cell is where the rows and columns intersect.
A tab, also called worksheet tab or sheet, is a spreadsheet of data that looks like a page as you navigate through it.
A workbook is a collection of spreadsheets in separate tabs. You may need to include several in a workbook and relate the data to each other.
A formula is an expression telling the program what operation to perform.
Functions are predefined common formulas.
Open up your first spreadsheet
After navigating to a program (such as Google Sheets, Excel, or Numbers), a new spreadsheet can be brought up by clicking New on the menu or clicking the + sign. Once you click on either of these, a new blank spreadsheet will appear.
Let's check out what the blank spreadsheet looks like. You can see:
A grid with columns and rows.
A menu.
Quick action buttons.
A tab bar.
Annotated spreadsheet overview
You can edit the name of the spreadsheet in Google Sheets by clicking on it. Replace it with something meaningful so you can easily find it later on.
In Google Sheets, edit the title by clicking on it
Navigate in the interface
Menu
You can see a menu bar at the top of the screen with File, Edit, View, Insert, and other options. You can use the options from the menu to work in your spreadsheet.
Quick action buttons
You also have some quick action buttons for common tasks such as:
Printing
Changing the data type (i.e., adding currency)
Changing the number of decimal places
And a lot of formatting features...
Extract of the quick action buttons menu
Undo is a good example of a quick action button. It's so commonly used, it had to be a quick action button. It's featured first in the quick action button bar, even though it's also in the Edit button dropdown.
You can choose between the quick action button, or navigating to Edit and selecting Undo, which requires an extra click. Use whichever way comes easiest and is fastest for you!
Tab bar
Further down the spreadsheet, you have the tab bar where you can edit the tab. The default name is Sheet 1.
Tab bar next to Sheet 1
Clicking on the + sign will create a new tab. The four bars button allows you to quickly change tab. You can access a lot of extra editing features by clicking on the dropdown arrow next to Sheet 1 . This pulls up the following menu of options:
Tab menu options
From there, you can accomplish any of the following:
Delete is available once you have several sheets. You can't delete a sheet if you only have one in your spreadsheet.
Duplicate allows you to make a copy of a worksheet tab. By making a copy of your sheet, you can keep the original pristine, so you don’t change the original data.
Copy to allows you to copy the sheet to another workbook. In Google Sheets, this means that you can also copy to a spreadsheet that was shared with you, which is a great collaboration feature.
Rename will allow you to delete the text ‘Sheet 1,’ and rename it something meaningful. Note that you could have also done this by double-clicking on Sheet 1.
Change color to differentiate your tabs quickly. Once you click on this one, you will then be prompted to choose the color of the tab.
Protect sheet is helpful when you have data, such as financial information or a report that you want people to view, but not have the ability to change. This helps ensure the integrity of the data.
Hide sheet is a great tool when you want to retain the information on the spreadsheet, but don’t want it visible to others. This could be the case for financial or personal data, for example.
Finally, once you have several tabs, if you want to reorder them, simply click on the sheet and drag and drop it to the desired location.
Example of reordered tabs
Let's recap!
A spreadsheet is made up of columns and rows to organize data. A cell is where the rows and columns intersect.
The main menu bar allows you to access all editing features, but you can access the main ones directly with the quick access buttons.
The tab bar at the bottom of the screen allows you complete basic editing tasks related to tabs, such as adding more, changing their names, hiding them, etc.
Ready to delve in deeper? Find out how to fill your spreadsheet with data in the next chapter, on entering, copying and referencing data.
