Uses include managing budgets, grade books, and simple address lists. A spreadsheet program is an electronic version of the accountant's worksheet. Cells may contain text, numbers, dates, or formulas. A formula is an instruction to perform a specific operation in one or more cells. The cell would display the sum 9.
Functions are predefined operations provided by the program.
They compute values and are very useful when constructing formulas. If, for example, you were maintaining a grade book, you might use the Average function to determine each student's grade average. Formulas are especially useful when the value of a cell depends on data in other cells that need to be periodically updated. If the cell contains a formula referring to those other cells, whenever the data is changed, the value of the cell containing the formula is automatically recalculated to reflect the changes. You can make selections from the menus on the Menu bar or click buttons for frequently-used options on the various toolbars .