Chapter 5. Getting Started with Calc

Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Chapter 5. Getting Started with Calc

< Previous Section

Next Section >

• Parts of the main Calc window
• Starting new spreadsheets
• Opening existing spreadsheets
• Saving spreadsheets
• Navigating within spreadsheets
• Selecting items in a sheet or spreadsheet
• Working with sheets
• Viewing Calc
• Entering data using the keyboard
• Speeding up data entry
• Editing data
• Formatting data
• Autoformatting cells and sheets
• Formatting spreadsheets using themes and Conditional Formatting
• Hiding and showing data
• Sorting records
• Printing from Calc

< Previous Page

Next Page >

This is Chapter 5 of Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3.x, produced by the OOoAuthors group. A PDF of this chapter is available from this wiki page. The PDFs are up to date for the second edition of the book, but not all of the wiki pages for this chapter have been updated yet.

What is Calc?

Calc is the spreadsheet component of OpenOffice.org (OOo). You can enter data, usually numerical data, in a spreadsheet and then manipulate this data to produce certain results.

Alternatively you can enter data and then use Calc in a ‘What If...’ manner by changing some of the data and observing the results without having to retype the entire spreadsheet or sheet.

Spreadsheets, sheets and cells

Calc works with elements called spreadsheets. Spreadsheets consist of a number of individual sheets, each containing a block of cells arranged in rows and columns.

These cells hold the individual elements—text, numbers, formulas etc.—which make up the data to be displayed and manipulated.

Each spreadsheet can have many sheets and each sheet can have many individual cells. In version 3.x of OOo, each sheet can have a maximum of 65,536 rows and a maximum of 1024 columns.