CCNC/CCNC Module 4/Working with and in cells/Entering data in cells

Entering data in cells
In the previous sub-sections, we focused on operations related to cells, rows and columns taken as a whole. In this subsection and the next, we will be going into the cells and focusing on the content or data contained in them. Here we will be entering data. But before we do that, we need to get a clearer understanding about what we mean by data as it relates to spreadsheets.

How Calc treats with different types of data

Data entered into cells may be of three types - numeric, text or date.

Treatment of numeric data

If a set of pure digits such as (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,) are typed in a cell, Calc will normally treat the data as numeric; operations may therefore be carried out on such data. In the example just given, you will be able to carry out arithmetic operations. If the symbol ' is typed in front of a set of digits, they will no longer be treated as numbers, but as text. In this case you will n ot be able to perform arithmetic operations on them.

Treatment of text

When you want to enter text in a cell you click on the cell in which you want to enter the text and type. Text will flow over from one cell to the next, but will be contained in the cell where you started typing. For example, if you wanted to type in a heading, and you clicked on cell A1 and typed, the information may be longer than the cell and would carry over into the adjacent cells. If you wanted to edit it later, you would have to activate cell A1 to work with it.

Treatment of the date

If you enter numbers in the format that Calc would recognise as a date, Calc would treat these as a date and reformat the contents of the cell in the default date format. For example, 20 Sept. 2003, 20 September 2003, and 20-09-2003 will all be interpreted by Calc as dates. If the default date format is short date, then Calc will reformat these as 20/09/03 in all cases. If you wish these not to be interpreted as dates, precede the entry with the symbol' and the data will be interpreted as text. If the date information in a cell is interpreted as data, then certain certain types of date arirthmetic can be performed. For example two dates can be substrated to yield the number of days between them. If a number is added to a date, this is interpreted as a number of days and the result will be another date.

Entering the data

Data is entered directly into the cell. The numbers and text that you type are entered directly into the cell that you clicked on. At the same time, this data also appears on the Input line of the Formula Bar. When you have completed your data entry, press Enter to move to the cell below or Tab to move to the cell to the right. You may also use the direction arrows to move to an adjacent cell.

Changing the direction of Enter

By default, when you press Enter, the cursor moves to the next cell down. This can be changed from teh menu Bar as follows: Tools->Options->Spreadsheet->input