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GCN Home > 06/23/08 issue

Spreadsheeting to the max

The spreadsheet is more versatile than you might think. Here are tips on how to get more out of your programs

By Joab Jackson

Few computer programs are as widely used and as little understood as the humble spreadsheet.

Assemble a group of Microsoft Excel users, and ask them how many think they are in the top percentile of savvy users. Almost everyone will raise their hands, said Mbwana Alliy, a Microsoft Office product manager.

However, few are aware of all the features a good spreadsheet offers.

“People do not realize this, but you do not need to do a particular application for everything,” said Robert Holmes, an Excel instructor at the Graduate School, USDA. “You can do a lot in Excel. You just need to know how.”

“In some situations, a spreadsheet can be an easier tool to use than a database system because you can pull the data you need on-the-fly with functions,” said Faithe Wempen, author of numerous books on Microsoft Office, including Special Edition Using Microsoft Word 2007.

Wempen is an adjunct instructor of computer technology at Purdue University and the instructor for a set of online classes offered by the Hewlett-Packard Learning Center. “Spreadsheets are nimble; they do not assume that you want to save every query and calculation for later use.”

However, such flexibility does not come naturally to most users. Holmes said. For his classes, he encourages students to think in Excel, which can take some doing.

“It’s like a language. You can take French lessons for 10 years, but if you never learn to think in French, you are not really effective. Computer applications are the same way. You have to think in that application in order to use it effectively.”

GCN can’t help you parlez-vous Spreadsheet, but here are a few quick phrases — that is to say, tips — that can help you get more from your spreadsheets with comparatively little effort.

1. USE INSTANT FORMS FOR ENTERING DATA Some spreadsheets have so many columns that they literally fall off the end of the page. This can be a problem when you are entering data on the far end of the spreadsheet; you might forget what sort of data is supposed to go into each row.

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