Advantages of using spreadsheets

Using a spreadsheetspreadsheet: A spreadsheet is made up of cells, rows and columns. Each cell holds a piece of numeric (numbers) or alphanumeric (text) data. Cells can also contain formulae to calculate their contents. rather than a calculator or pen and paper offers the following advantages:

More effective data handling

• Formulaeformula (plural formulae): in computing, a calculation 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 informationinformation: data with context or meaning can be presented in different ways. For example, the grocer could produce a graph of fruit and vegetable sales by choosing the ranges A4:A10 and E4:E10 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 fontsfont: style applied to text, eg Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana are all types of font and graphicsgraphics: visuals intended to brand, inform, illustrate or entertain, eg photographs, drawings, maps, diagrams etc..
• Justify your datadata: information without context, eg a list of students with numbers beside their names is data, when it's made clear that those numbers represent their placing in a 100 metre race, the data becomes information 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.