Working with Data - OpenOffice Calc

Working with Data

When you open a new spreadsheet, the cell pointer is located in cell A1. So, the Cell A1 is known as “Home Cell”. Cell pointer can be moved anywhere in the spreadsheet using the direction keys.

“Tab key” is used to move the cell pointer towards the right side or forward direction. “Shift+Tab” is used to move backward i.e. from right to left in a row. “Enter” key is also used to move the cell pointer. Enter moves the cell pointer to a cell below the current cell i.e. downwards. Four “direction keys” are used to move the cell pointer anywhere in the worksheet.

Entering Data:

Any data can be typed directly in any cell of the worksheet. But, the cell in which you type data should be an active cell. So, move the cell pointer to a particular cell to make it active cell; or click any cell to make it active cell. Then, start typing any data. When you type data, spreadsheet recognises the type of data entered in cells.

Data types:

Data are of different types. Data are made up of alphabets, numbers, Date and time is another data type even though it has numbers and symbols. In general, data types are classified as:

Alphabetic data type – consists of alphabets only Numeric data type – consists only of numbers (whole number or fractional numbers) Alphanumeric data types – consists of a combination of alphabets and numerals Date data type – consists only of date Time data type – consists only time

1. Entering Numbers:

Any numeric data can be entered in a spreadsheet. Entered numbers are aligned to the right side within the cell by default. Negative numbers may be entered with a minus sign or within brackets (Refer Figure 9.12). If you enter any number within the bracket, it will be changed as negative number i.e., number prefixed with minus. If any number starts with 0 (zero); Calc will drop the leading zero.

2. Entering Text:

Unlike numbers, any character can be entered as data in Calc. Entered text will be aligned to the left side within the cell by default. When you enter any numeric value, if it is aligned left, it is understood that the entered content is not a number. If there is any number that starts with a single quote, calc converts that number to text (Refer Figure 9.13).

3. Entering Date and Time:

Before entering date, ensure the format of your system date. Calc accepts date as per the system date format. If your system has American date format i.e. month-date-year; you should enter dates in Calc spreadsheet as mm/dd/yy. If your system follows the Indian date format, date should be entered as dd/ mm/yy form in Calc. Only the correct form of date is accepted by Calc as a date.v

For example: If your system has American Date format, 18th December 2017 should be entered as 12/18/17. As soon as the date is typed in the correct form, the entered date will be aligned on the right side within the cell, and if you place the cell pointer in that cell, the formula bar shows your date as “12/18/2017” (Figure 9.14). This is a visual clue to know whether the date is accepted or not.

A Date format can be changed to any other valid form using “Cell Formatting” dialog box, and it will be discussed later.

Like dates, for entering time, calc follows the general format HH:MM:SS. where HH, MM and SS represent hours, minutes and seconds respectively.

Different Date Formats