Your First Open Office Spreadsheet - Part 1

Hi People

Now you have got your OpenOffice.org program up and running (You haven't, see last post on this blog), we can get our first file created. A spreadsheet is what I have chosen to start.

Sometime soon, we will be adding video clips to give a little more information , but for now its just the text and snapshots.

Open your OpenOffice program. Select 'Spreadsheet' (Very similar to Excel in look isn't it?).
The spread sheet will be centred around getting you Mileage calculated and costed for you, so we will call it "Car Mileage" OK.

Firstly nearly the whole screen is covered in little blocks, these are called cells. Cells are the basic blocks (no pun intended) of the spreadsheet. A spreadsheet contains a number of these cells. Each cell is called by its Column Letter and Row Number. So if you wanted to put the word 'Miles' into D5. First find the column headed with D and follow it down until you come to row 5. Left click in this cell. This would place the cursor in that cell. Now you can type Miles into that cell.

Headings for Columns:

We will need the following headings (initially)
Date [A2]
Mileage [B2]
Cost per litre [C2]
Number of litres [D2]
Total Cost [E2]
Miles [F2]
Cost per mile [G2]
miles per litre [H2]
litres per 100km [I2]



If you put these headings in the cells in the [ ], so that for example Miles will go into cell [F2].  You may need to widen some columns (we will do that next time if you cannot figure out how to do it).

Now we need to save the the spreadsheet, left click on File (top left of screen ) and find and left click on Save in the the menu list.  The 'Filename' box should have 'Untitled 1' highlighted in blue, just type Mileage (you don't have to clear the box first).  Under the 'Filenname' box, you will see a box with 'Save as type' to the left of it and 'ODF Spreadsheet  (.ods)' in the box.  Left click on the blue 'V' to the right of the box and select 'Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP (.xls)'.  Now left click on the 'Save' button. Job done - you will find the spreadsheet in your 'My documents' folder.
That will be all for this time, people, but I will leave you to think on what columns we are going to put our dates, and figures into and what columns are going to be worked out by the spreadsheet.

See you next time
Prometheus1618


We now have a FREE SPYWARE REPORT available, yours to keep and share if you wish. Fill in your details below and get yours now

eMail address:
First Name: