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Introduction
Calc is a spread sheet -- what are those?
First of all, let’s look
at what you can do with a spread sheet. You can use it as a
calculator, make invoices, makes budgets, create lists,
make an analysis tool for evalating odds etc., etc., etc...
The possibilities are infinite.
A spread sheet is basically a bunch of cells aligned
horizontally and vertically.
In each of these cells you can but different kinds of
information. Examples:
- numbers
- text
- formulas
Numbers are entered both as information and as basis for
formulas.
"Text? Isn't that for word processors?". Yes. And no. You
wouldn't want to use a spread sheet for heavy word
processing, but you could use a spread sheet to describe
the numbers or formulas you have in y our spread sheet.
Formulas; this is where the magic lies... Most formulas are
easy to use, some are a little less easy to use and some
are almost easy to use ;-) You use formulas to change a
bunch of data into something more useful, such as a sum, or
to count the numbers you have entered, or the average of
number etc.
An example; if you have a list of 20 numbers, you can,
literally, in a matter of seconds find both the sum of
them, the average, the largest number AND the smallest
number. Not impressed? You feel you could do that without
formulas? Of course you can. But what if you have 200
numbers in the list? You would still use the same formulas
AND use the same amount of time to get the numbers
mentioned! Still not convinced? OK -- try 20.000 numbers in
a list. Done in the same amount of time. Try that on a
calculator.
OK, so some good news. The above example is from the real
world, and it's true! And it's fairly easy to accomplish.
The best news is that you'll know how in an hour or so...