4.1: What is a Spreadsheet?
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A spreadsheet is a collection of data that is organized into rows and columns. Microsoft® Excel is a spreadsheet application used to store and analyze quantitative data. An Excel file is called a workbook, and it is saved with an .xlsx extension. A workbook file consists of one or more worksheets which consists of many columns and rows. Columns are the vertical part of a worksheet grid identified by letters. Rows are the horizontal part of a worksheet grid identified by numbers. The intersection of a row and column is called a cell. Each cell can store a single item of data. The data can contain text, numbers, formulas, and/or functions. Clicking a cell with the mouse pointer will make the selected cell the active cell. The active cell’s contents are displayed in the formula bar.
Typical uses for Excel include:
- Accounting reports (Balance Sheets, Income Statements, etc)
- Budgets
- Calendars
- Checklists and task lists
- Contact/Address lists
- Expense tracking
- Inventory control
- Invoices
- Mortgage and other financial calculations
- Operational statistics
- Sales price lists, forecasts and analysis