Spreadsheet skills Castle College

Objectives Look into what is a Spreadsheet. Gain some understanding into some of the functions of a Spreadsheet. Discuss what is it used for?

Starting at the Beginning What is a Spreadsheet? What are they for? What can they do? A spreadsheet is a powerful tool for organising information. They model a real life situation. They are used to carry out lots of calculations quickly and to store large amounts of information for a range of purposes. Once you know how to do it – they can do almost any maths that you could need!

Basic Design Spreadsheet is a two-dimensional table of rows and columns. Each Cell has a cell reference based on its row number and column letter i.e. A1, F4 etc. Complex formulae may be set up to perform more sophisticated calculations such as statistical data. Ability to recalculate the contents of cells that hold formulae and to display revised contents almost instantly. – Good for ‘what if’ questions.

So, how do they work then? Rows (Side to Side) [Numbered] Columns (Up and Down) [Letters] Cell (Every one on these boxes is a cell) Every cell has a name to help you find the right one. Its name starts with the column letter and then the row number. So, this cell is called what? F22

Data Types In its simplest form, each cell can contain one of four types of data: Text – including titles, headings and labels etc. Numeric Data – any type of number i.e. currency, percentage or date Formulae – involving single operators, relative cell references and functions Blank – useful for white space

Using formulae There is one more thing that you need to know About using a spreadsheets to perform calculations. The symbols for the operations are not all the same. So to calculate 3x4 You would enter =3*4 And the spreadsheet would show “12”. (That’s the answer!) Maths Symbol Spreadsheet Symbol X * ÷ /

Uses of spreadsheets Commonly used for the accounting and finance departments of an organisation to record transactions They have replaced manual pages in ledgers, where income and expenditure were organised into rows and columns Any problem involving lots of calculations and analysis of numerical data is ideally suited to being solved by a spreadsheet.

Supporting decision making Provide timely and accurate information in a variety of situations:  Analysis of data  Goal Seeking  Scenarios  Regression  Data Mining (Forecasting)  Cost-benefit analysis – technique used for deciding whether to make a change. You add up the value of benefit and subtract the costs associated with it.

Complexity Multiple worksheets Complex formulae Large data set Cells linked between worksheet pages

Conclusion Looked into what is a Spreadsheet. Gained some understanding into some of the functions of a Spreadsheet. Discussed what is it used for?