When writing an article, you organize information by breaking it up into paragraphs and sentences. You group similar ideas into sections and arrange them in a logical sequence. This structuring of information makes it easy to locate and understand the text. But what will you do if you organize numerical information? For example, how will you structure your monthly budget?
Numerical data is organised using tables. When it is entered into rows and columns, it becomes easier to locate and understand these numbers. For example, do you remember how cricket scores are displayed on your TV screen during a match?
There are rows and columns. The rows display the names of the players and the columns display information such as the number of balls each batsman played, the number of runs he made, and the run rate.
This arrangement of numbers in a table format allows us to organise data for quick viewing.
Meet Sean Riley, an English teacher at Santana High. Sean is also the class teacher for the ninth grade. Today, he is busy preparing the annual result sheets for the 30 students in his class. Every year, he spends hours manually entering the marks for different subjects for each student into the result sheet. He then finds the highest and the lowest totals for the class and calculates the class average. But this year, things are going to be different. Sean plans to use a computerized spreadsheet for his task.
The word spreadsheet comes from the account keeping ledgers that use a double spread or both the sheets of an open register to enter financial data. Spreadsheets are typically used for calculating budgets, sales forecasting, tracking expenses, presentation graphics and creating financial reports. But they are also used for tabulating data for result sheets for exams, attendance registers in offices, and keeping scores during games.
Activity: Can you think of other instances where spreadsheets can be used?
Traditionally, people use huge sheets of paper as spreadsheets. However, a big limitation of using these paper spreadsheet is that not only are they cumbersome, but any information changes must be physically erased and rewritten. This means that if you have completed computing and then decide to change an entry, all the previous calculations are incorrect until they are redone. For example, after calculating the average attendance of his class, Sean realises that he has forgotten to put in the name of a student who joined the class late in the school year. He will now have to go through all the numbers and calculate the totals all over again to find the new average attendance of his class. Obviously, working with a paper spreadsheet can be both complicated and time consuming.
With computerised spreadsheets, however, it is possible to create formulas that automatically update when you change the data.
Computerised spreadsheets are created using a special computer software program. Some examples of such software are MS-Excel and Lotus 1-2-3.
FACT: The first spreadsheet program was developed in 1979. It was called VisiCalc or Visible Calculator.
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that lets you create and work with computerised spreadsheets. It is a powerful tool to organize, manipulate, and presentdata. Excel is fast and simple to use even when you are calculating complicated formulae. The program has Word-like features to help you format text and add borders to cells. Excel also allows you to create attractive-looking graphs and charts to supplement the figures in your spreadsheets.
You can think of computerised spreadsheets as readymade tables that do much more than elementary statistical tasks. They make it easy for you to view, navigate, and interact with numerical data. These include applying algebraic operations, manipulating and sorting through data, and exploring various “what–if” scenarios.
An Excel spreadsheet will allow you to manipulate data through cut/copy/paste commands. This means that you can easily add or delete data, move it, or replicate it. It will also enable you to sort quickly through the data. For example, Sean has not entered the names of the students in their alphabetical order. In a paper spreadsheet, he’d have to re-enter all the names in the correct alphabetical order, along with the grades per student, per subject. With an Excel spreadsheet, he can simply perform a Sort Ascending operation. Additionally, alphabetizing the names won't mix up the order of the grades, it will be carried along with the correct student name.
One of the most important advantage of using Excel spreadsheets over traditional paper spreadsheets is the instantaneous output.
This means that Sean can edit or update the data, as well as calculate or recalculate the average attendance of his class in a jiffy. That’s right! Excel spreadsheets allow you to use formulas to automatically carry out mathematical tasks such as calculating results or finding the class average. Once you change a data, Excel instantaneously updates the results to reflect the change.
Another advantage of Excel is that you can convert data and the findings into attractive charts or graphs by simply specifying a set of values in the spreadsheet. For example, selecting the values in a column and pressing a few keys will tell the spreadsheet to draw a pie chart, bar chart, line chart, or a combination of chart types, including three-dimensional charts. Number crunching was never so easy, right? So let's see how to work in Excel.
