When do you use a spreadsheet program

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.

Thus the very first cell in the upper left-hand corner is called A1. In the image below, for example, cell D9 is highlighted. Setting the View Options You can select some settings to change the view of the spreadsheet or display toolbars you frequently use, such as the one for entering formulas to make calculations. Entering Information in a Cell You enter information into a spreadsheet program by typing it into each of the cells. You can enter three different types of information into a cell: Numbers — so you then can perform mathematical calculations on them.

Text — to identify what the numbers in the columns and rows represent, usually by typing headings across the top of the columns or on the left edge of the rows Formulas — to perform calculations on the numbers in a column or a row of cells.

To enter information into a cell, simply click on the cell and type in the information. Text Headings To enter text headings for the various columns and rows to identify them, follow the same procedure as you would with entering numbers.

Importing Data Into a Spreadsheet Many government agencies and private organizations provide data on their websites in a spreadsheet or other format that you can download onto your computer. After a few seconds you should see a Google Docs spreadsheet that looks like this: This spreadsheet shows the number of murder victims in each year from to in five columns, with the columns labeled by year in cells B4 to F4. Resizing Columns or Rows You can improve the display of the data in a spreadsheet by increasing or decreasing the width of a column or the height of a row.

Deleting or Adding Columns or Rows You can get rid of unwanted data or other information by deleting rows or columns. Use the same procedure for deleting a column. Learn to work with data in a spreadsheet and to create engaging charts, maps and graphs in the Berkeley Advanced Media Institute Data Visualization for Storytellers Workshop.

Formulas — Adding, Subtracting, Multiplying and Dividing With a spreadsheet you can insert a formula that will instantly add, subtract, multiply or divide numbers in columns or rows.

To do this you select a cell in a new column or row and then type in a formula. This would require totaling up for each year the column of numbers for the five weapon types in the spreadsheet: Handguns — row 7 Rifles — row 8 Shotguns — row 9 Other guns — row 10 Firearms, type not stated — row To do this we need to insert a formula for adding a series of numbers in a column.

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. You can also use it to do business related forecasts and plan ahead for the future. These are some of the common purposes spreadsheets are used for, but there are additional ways you can utilize a spreadsheet to achieve your business goals.

Configure them to your needs, and tap into all the ways you can use this simple yet effective tool. Nicky is a business writer with nearly two decades of hands-on and publishing experience. Women on Writing. In the image above row 3 is selected. This can be done by clicking on the number 3 in front of the row.

In the image above column B is selected. This can be done by clicking on the letter B above the column. In the image above cell B3 is selected. This can be done by clicking on the cell. A spreadsheet can contain one or several worksheets tabs.