Macworld has a nice article, Nine things everyone should know how to do with a spreadsheet. I learned a few things, like #8. They show examples for MS Excel, iWork Numbers and Google Sheets.
- 5 contains a mistake. Numbers does indeed allow you to name ranges. In particular it does it automatically for whole columns or rows based on the header name. Also, one of the things I really like about Numbers is that each sheet is just a canvas and you put tables and charts (and potentially other objects) on it. This makes much more sense to me than embedding a chart in a table as Excel does. It also means that Tables can have names that formulas can reference. (I did learn that Excel allows you to name ranges).
Basic but good info in these tips.
ReplyDeleteI am not a fan of merged cells because I know that people use spreadsheets for two or three competing reasons, 1. contain data, 2. manipulate data, 3. display data in a human friendly format. Nothing like merged cells to stop me from taking that data and putting it somewhere else for manipulation. I think with spreadsheets those three reason can be kept separate.
I liked the other comment that warned people not to use a spreadsheet as a database. I think that is an advanced topic vs. the suggestions in the post.
Finally, goodness knows I love building complicated models and manipulating data in spreadsheets to learn new things, but when it comes time to present the data, think carefully. No one but a handful of savants can make sense instantly out a table of numbers. Use good, thoughtful charts to learn the relationships in the data. I am a big fan of Tableau for this. (steps off of soapbox, sorry about that)