Advantages of using spreadsheets
Using a A piece of software used to manipulate data, often used in modelling. rather than a calculator or pen and paper offers the following advantages:
More effective data handling
- A simple piece of arithmetic you type into a spreadsheet to perform a calculation. The plural of 'formula' is 'formulae'. can be used to instantly recalculate totals. For example, if the builder changed his call-out charge, the total cost would be instantly recalculated taking the change into account.
- You can carry out "what if?" investigations. For example, the grocer could increase his prices to see the effect on sales and the builder could increase his hourly charge to see the effect on his daily total.
- The Data that has meaning, not just a number or a letter. can be presented in different ways. For example, the grocer could produce a graph of fruit and vegetable sales by choosing the ranges A2:A8 and E2:E8 in order to make the graph.
- It is easy to make these changes, save your work and print it out again.
More flexible presentation
- Alter column widths and easily delete or add columns and rows.
- Underline, embolden text and use different Style applied to text, eg Times New Roman, Arial and Verdana are all types of font. and A visual image displayed on screen or stored as data..
- Justify your Values, typically letters or numbers. to the left, centre or right.
- Control the types of numbers you enter - for example you can choose percentage, currency or set the number of decimal places.