'Back to basics' means exploring spreadsheet
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): Nowadays, "back to basics" may sound like a tired, overused phrase. However, sometimes it does us good to get back to the basics so that we don't lose ground.
For some time now, we have been exploring the latest in software programs to see whether they are worth spending our hard-earned rupiahs on, and whether they are worth having on our hard disks. Now, it is time to adjust the course of our journey and see what we can extract from the software we already have.
Spreadsheets are just one of the things that have made personal computers so meaningful. Apple II, for example, took off so quickly because of VisiCalc, the precursor of today's spreadsheet programs. Today, everybody is familiar with Lotus 1- 2-3; in fact, most of us confuse the name of the company and its flagship product. We would say, "Why don't we just create the table in Lotus?" while what we mean is to create it in 1-2-3. It's so popular, yet so many people -- including my own colleagues who have become so fluent in using word processors such as WordStar, Ami Pro and WordPerfect -- shy away from spreadsheets because they think they are hard to learn.
So, in our return journey to the basics, we will explore the real basics of the spreadsheet. Our discussion will probably remain so basic throughout this article that you may not even belong here.
A crash course
First, what is a spreadsheet? Well, you must have seen an accountants' columnar paper or book. Accountants record all the financial activities of their organization on the paper or in the book. The pages are characteristically full with columns. You see tables, you see labels and you see figures.
A spreadsheet is just an electronic representation of the accountant's book. If you're still not sure what I mean, then let's think of another analogy. Think of a huge housing estate that has a grid system of roads. There are numerous houses in the estate, each is circled by these roads, and each has its own address.
A spreadsheet is just like an estate. The houses are the cells. In a typical Windows spreadsheet, you'll recognize what I mean by cells immediately since the cell grid-like boundaries are quite visible. Take a look at the accompanying illustration, and you'll know what I mean.
Just like the houses in the estate, the cells in a spreadsheet are distinct. Each has its own "address" and specific content. How do you know their addresses? Well, each cell is basically the intersection of a column and a row. So, when a cell is located in Column C and Row 4, its address will be C4. If it is located in Column X and Row 235, its address will be X235. It's that simple.
Now, where do we find the column and row names? You'll find them on the upper and left edges of each spreadsheet. This is called the spreadsheet frame. How many cells are there in a spreadsheet? The number may vary from one program to another, but usually there are 8,192 rows and 256 columns. That's certainly more than you would care to count. The most important thing is that you learn the addressing convention of the cells. You have to get used to addresses like K25 and HV43.
Cell contents
If a house accommodates humans, furniture and activities, a cell is filled with three things: (1) Text; (2) Figures, and (3) Formula.
The text that fills a cell is called a label. So, for instance, the word "Items" in cell C2 in the illustration is a label, and so are the words in cells D2, E2, F2, C3, C4, C5, C6, etc. Labels are just what the word itself means; they give meaning to the contents of other cells underneath or to the right of themselves.
When you enter a number instead of a string of text, it will be stored as a value. When I went to Glodok Plaza to shop for computer supplies last week, I spent Rp 100,000 on diskettes. In F3, 100,000 is a value and is different from a label. The label "Diskettes" in C3 gives meaning to the value "100,000" in F3.
How do I get the value 100.000,00? Well, the price of one box of ten diskettes was Rp 25,000, and I bought four boxes. I made a calculation, I multiplied 25,000 by 4, and I got that value. But the spreadsheet did all this for me. All I have to do is enter what is called a formula into the cell.
When I wanted to enter a formula in F3 that will multiply the content of cell D3 by the content of cell E3, I entered the following: "+D3*E3" or "=D3*E3". This intelligent spreadsheet calculates the operation, and gave me the value "100,000". Isn't that neat? You can see another example of the formula in F14 in the illustration.
You can use operators such as multiplication, division, addition and subtraction in your formulas. You can also create very complex formulas, depending on your need. The possibilities are almost limitless.
Navigating
As I said before, a spreadsheet is a huge piece of electronic columnar paper. On a high resolution display, you may be able to see as many as 11 columns and 30 rows at any time. On a standard VGA display, however, you'll see much fewer. That's why a high resolution display system is preferable when people work with spreadsheets.
To move from one cell to another, you have to move the cell pointer. Just like the insertion point of a word processor, you can move the cell pointer using the four arrow keys. Or, you can move it directly to a particular cell using the mouse.
If you get lost in this huge housing estate, just remember
one thing: Pressing
Many uses
Spreadsheets are handy, and if you're still not using it after reading this super-basic introduction, shame on you. It's not so difficult to learn, and I guess the above short lesson would be understood even by a true computer-phobic.
Although it borrows the basic idea from the accountants' paper, you can use spreadsheets for a wide variety of purposes. I use spreadsheets to create tables. In fact, I am now building my own dictionary of specialized terms in Indonesian and English with the help of a spreadsheet. People in corporations use them to create large databases, complete with their data entry forms. Analysts use spreadsheets to analyze data and create scenarios. They play "what if" games with spreadsheets. Scientists can even do regression analyses with the built-in analytical tools.
The tables, labels and so forth do not have to look dull as the one that you see spreading from B2 to F7. The table in B10 to F15 is nothing more than a carbon copy of this table, but I have applied some very simple decorative tricks to this copy. I changed the color of the cell background, and I changed the color of the characters to white. Today, spreadsheet programs are loaded with a plethora of formatting options.
The potential of a spreadsheet is unlimited, and therefore you should learn to use it. Remember, it's just labels, values and formulas.