In the first article in this series, we went
through the steps necessary to create a new Google Docs account. In this article we’ll dive right in and
create a new spreadsheet, rename it, and get familiar with the workspace and
navigation. Finally, we’ll find the
Google Docs Help Center to look up any features we can’t find on our own. Follow the steps below to get started.
- In the Google Docs workspace,
click the New button and select Spreadsheet in the dropdown menu, as
shown below.
- A blank Google Docs spreadsheet
will open in a new window. You’re ready
to create your first spreadsheet.
- The spreadsheet workspace is very
similar to most spreadsheet programs, so you should have no trouble navigating
the interface to enter formulas, format cells, and merge cells, as shown below.
- To save your work, click the Save button in the upper right hand
corner and type a filename in the popup window (shown below).
- If you need to, you can rename
your spreadsheet. Click Rename in the File menu, as shown below. Type in the name you want to use and click Ok.
Google Spreadsheet is a full-featured spreadsheet
application, similar to Microsoft Excel, with all the features you expect. Go
ahead and play around with it. The most
common tasks, like formatting text, changing cell color, and adding borders, have
buttons on the toolbar. You can find
everything else in the file menu located just above the toolbar. Click on the Formulas tab (shown below) to
create and edit formulas to calculate sum, average, product, and all the other
powerful mathematical formulas you need from a spreadsheet. If you’re working on something and don’t see the feature you need,
check out the Google Docs Help Center at http://docs.google.com/support/?hl=en_US.
Want to know more about Google Docs? Check out the other articles in this series
to create a presentation or word processing document.