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Spreadsheet software is a software application capable of organizing, storing and analyzing data in tabular form. The application can provide digital simulation of paper accounting worksheets. They can also have multiple interacting sheets with data represented in text, numeric or in graphic form.
With these capabilities, spreadsheet software has replaced many paper-based systems, especially in the business world. Originally developed as an aid for accounting and bookkeeping tasks, spreadsheets are now widely used in other contexts where tabular lists can be used, modified and collaborated.
In comparison to word processors, spreadsheet software provides a distinct advantage when working with numbers. Calculation and functionalities are easier to represent in spreadsheets than in word processors, and thus effective data handling is possible.
Spreadsheet software also provides flexible presentation of data. This software is capable of interacting with databases, can populate fields and can also help in automation of data creation and modification.
Spreadsheet software can be shared both online and offline and allows for easy collaboration. Keep track of your business spending on a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets can be used to contain data that has been exported from other systems.
Use your spreadsheets to identify inaccuracies and duplicates in your data. This is especially necessary in relation to customer data, which you are required to keep up to date and accurate. Use spreadsheets to report trends or make business forecasts. These reports can be made available to everyone at the company; they can take the time to analyze the data for themselves.
Data in a spreadsheet can be used to create charts that can then be used for reporting. Use spreadsheets for the creation of receipts and invoices. Good… so far. But, you might then try to apply this same formula to the cells for the other types of weapons by dragging the crosshairs, as we did in the previous example.
The problem is that when the spreadsheet copies a formula using this method, it shifts the letters for both cells in the original formula F6 and F5 as it applies that formula to other cells resulting in F7 divided by F6 in the next cell down. To fix this, we need to force the spreadsheet to always divide the numbers for each type of weapon used by a constant number — the total number of homicides in cell F5.
This is called anchoring the cell in our formula, and force the spreadsheet always to use one cell each time. The dollar signs tell Excel to always keep anchored on cell F5 and the data in it when applying this formula to other cells.
For example, in our example spreadsheet on weapons used in homicides, what if you wanted to know the total number of homicides in which did not include a firearm? To calculate that, you could add up the numbers in rows 12 to 21 for each year using the SUM formula.
To use the SUM formula to calculate the number of non-firearm-related homicides in rows 12 to 21, first click on cell:. A range has two cell references separated by a colon. Ranges can even span multiple row or multiple columns, and can be used in numerous formulas. You also can add up select numbers in a column, rather than a span of them, using the SUM formula. To do that, in the SUM formula you replace the colon with commas to separate the specific cells you want to total up.
Thus if you wanted to total up only the number of homicides in in which either poison cell B15 or narcotics cell B18 was involved, you would type this formula. This would mean adding cells B6 through F6. Now you can click the cells you want to be referenced, and they will be auto-populated into the formula.
You can click-and-drag to specify a range, or click and hold down the shift key and click another cell. To specify specific cells to add without making it a range, you should hold down the command key Mac or Control key PC and click all the cells you want. In our spreadsheet on the types of weapons used in homicides, for example, what if we wanted to know the average number of firearm-related homicides each year between and cells B6 to F6. One advantage to Google spreadsheets is that it is designed to work with the Web.
Specific functions allow you to load data dynamically directly from a website. CSV files comma separated values can be imported directly into a spreadsheet from anywhere on the Web. CSV is one of the most common data formats and can be found with a simple Google search. For sample data, we will use a piece of crime data from UC Berkeley in hosted on Github. Click the small plus button at the bottom of our workbook document:.
Many files will not be this clean and may require cleanup. Governments regularly update CSV files on their servers. This may happen frequently with certain files such as election results. In the previous example, you might have noticed the date and time columns display these strange numbers which should be dates and times of each crime. Raw cell data for a time value is the number of days since Jan 1, and may even be different when using Microsoft Excel.
We can easily adjust this by changing the cell format. Tables can frequently be imported directly from a Web page into a spreadsheet. Note: This example will tie into the next section on charts, so we use it for convenience. However, we do not advocate using data from Wikipedia in any production sense. Always vet and corroborate data directly from the source when used in journalism. The third parameter is which table element we should find, in case there are multiple.
Live data from Google finance can be imported into your spreadsheet. The data updates automatically every time the spreadsheet is loaded.
Quotes can have up to a 20 minute delay, which is common for financial data. The initials at the beginning of the parentheses are stock ticker symbols. You can find the symbol for any stock at Google Finance. The same function can be used to load historic data.
With the spreadsheet on types of weapons used in homicides, for example, you could more easily see which weapons are most frequently used by ranking them from the highest number to the lowest number for any given year. To do this, you first need to highlight the area of the spreadsheet that you want to sort. The highlighted area now includes the headings for the types of weapons used and then the numbers for each type of weapon for each year. You also can select whether to sort that data in ascending order A — Z so the smallest number appears at the top of the sorted data, or descending order Z — A so the largest number appears at the top.
A spreadsheet provides a lot of options for re-formatting the information being displayed. These are similar to the options in a word processing program like Microsoft Word or many other applications. They include:. Some of these options are available by selecting Format in the menu at the top and then picking one of the choices in the drop-down menu.
This tutorial was originally written by Paul Grabowicz for students in his Computer Assisted Reporting class, and later modified by Jeremy Rue for public use. I first learned how to use the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program many years ago using that book, which took a step by step approach based on how a journalist uses a spreadsheet. I tried to use the same approach with this tutorial. This content may not be republished in print or digital form without express written permission from Berkeley Advanced Media Institute.
Please see our Content Redistribution Policy. On your screen will appear a basic spreadsheet, divided into numbered rows and lettered columns. The rows and columns intersect to create small boxes, which are called cells. Each cell is identified by its column letter and row number.
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