Chapter 2. Cells

Insert data

Data types

Data entered into cells can be of three types: numeric, text or date.

If a set of pure digits (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) are typed in a cell, Calc will normally treat the data as numeric. In this case arithmetic operations can be performed on the numbers.

If the ' symbol is typed in front of a set of digits, then Calc will treat the number as if it were ordinary text. In this case you will not be able to do arithmetic. You will however be able to format the numbers in the way you do text.

Text can be entered by clicking on the cell where you want to start at and typing normally. The text will flow over from one cell to the next, but will be contained in the cell where you started typing, eg if you wanted to type in a heading and you clicked on cell A1 and typed, the information may be longer than one cell and would carry on over into the adjacent cells, but if you wanted to edit it later you would have to activate cell A1 to work with it.

If you enter numbers in the format that Calc would recognise as a date, Calc will 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.

If the contents of a cell are interpreted as data, then certain types of date arithmetic can be performed. For example, two dates can be subtracted to yield the number of days between the dates. If a number is added to a date, this is interpreted as a number of days and the result will be another date.

Entering data

Data can be entered into the current cell. As you type, numbers and text will be entered into a cell. At the same time these appear 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 using:

Tools->Options->Spreadsheet->Input

	Note on notation
To simplify the text in future, where there is no possibility of ambiguity, the notation: Tools->Options->Spreadsheet->Input will be used instead of the longer form\: Click on Tools, then Options. Expand the Spreadsheets option by clicking on the + symbol Click on Input

Note on notation

To simplify the text in future, where there is no possibility of ambiguity, the notation:

Tools->Options->Spreadsheet->Input will be used instead of the longer form\:

Click on Tools, then Options.
Expand the Spreadsheets option by clicking on the + symbol
Click on Input


Adjust settings		Select cells