Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours

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Hour 14: Entering Spreadsheet Data

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Working with Sheets


Although you've seen how to move rapidly all over your spreadsheet, it can still make more sense to split your information across several sheets that are part of a single spreadsheet file.

For example, suppose you're preparing a company budget. All the information is related, but rather than scroll all over a large spreadsheet to find items and check formulas, you can place each division's expected revenues and expenses on a separate sheet. The first sheet can be used to summarize the information on all the other sheets.

StarOffice provides this capability. The default new spreadsheet that opens includes three sheets. You can rename these sheets or add additional sheets as needed.

In addition, you can use features such as hiding sheets to arrange and protect the information on each sheet.

Naming a Sheet

When you start a new spreadsheet, the three sheets are named Sheet1, Sheet2, and Sheet3. This is straightforward, but not very descriptive. If you want to change the name of a sheet, follow these steps:

1. Go to the sheet that you want to rename by either clicking on its tab (see Figure 14.5) or pressing Ctrl+PageDown.

Figure 14.5
Each sheet has a tab that you can use to view that sheet.

Tip - If the sheets' tabs aren't visible, choose Options on the Tools menu, and then choose Spreadsheet options. In the Layout tab of the dialog box, check Sheet Tabs in the Window options area.


2. From the Format menu, select Sheet.

3. From the Sheet submenu, choose Rename. The Rename Sheet dialog box appears (see Figure 14.6).

Figure 14.6
The Rename Sheet dialog box enables you to assign a name to any sheet in your spreadsheet.

4. Enter the name that you want to use for this sheet.

5. Choose OK.

The name that you enter appears on the sheet tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

Adding Another Sheet

On many occasions, you'll want to add another sheet beyond the three provided by default. StarOffice enables you to add more sheets, as long as you have enough system resources to work with them.

To add another sheet to the spreadsheet you're viewing, follow these steps:

Tip - If you have Document protection turned on (in the Protect Document submenu under Tools), you can't insert a sheet. Turn it off so that the insert sheet menu item is available.


1. Choose Sheet from the Insert menu. The Insert Sheet dialog box appears as in Figure 14.7.

Figure 14.7
The Insert Sheet dialog box enables you to add another sheet to your spreadsheet.

2. Enter a name for the new sheet in the Name field.

Tip - If you have another spreadsheet file that you want to insert in this spreadsheet, choose From file and then click the Browse button to select a file from the file browsing dialog box.


3. Choose OK.

The new sheet appears to the left of the currently active sheet, with the name you entered shown on the sheet tab.

Protecting a Sheet

The security features of StarOffice enable you to protect your information both from prying eyes and from accidents caused by user error (for example, if you accidentally delete or change something).

You can protect information in your spreadsheet in several ways, including

  • Hiding a sheet from view without password protection

  • Protecting a sheet from being altered

  • Protecting specific cells in a sheet from being altered

  • Preventing certain cells from being printed when the spreadsheet is printed

You can easily hide a sheet from view. Choose Sheet from the Format menu, and then choose Hide from the Sheet submenu. The current sheet immediately disappears.

To see that sheet again, choose Show from the same submenu and select the sheet that you hid.

As another example, suppose that you have a spreadsheet containing sales figures. Those sales numbers are reality, but you want to experiment with a formula to see how certain actions will affect future sales.

All the cells in a StarOffice spreadsheet are marked as read-only by default. That is, when you turn Sheet Protection on, you can't modify any cells in the spreadsheet. For your sales spreadsheet, you want to protect the entire spreadsheet so that you don't alter the sales figures, but you want to leave a few cells unprotected so that you can experiment with a formula or two.

Follow these steps to unprotect a few of the cells in your spreadsheet so that they can be modified even when the Sheet Protection is On (to protect the rest of the sheet):

1. Start by entering information in several cells of your spreadsheet.

2. Select the cells that you want to modify when Sheet Protection is turned On.

3. Choose Cells from the Format menu and select the Cell Protection tab (see Figure 14.8).

Figure 14.8
The Cell Protection tab provides several options for protecting your data.

4. Uncheck the Protected checkbox.

5. Choose OK.

6. Under the Tools menu, select Protect Document, and then choose Sheet from the submenu that appears. The Protect Sheet dialog box appears (see Figure 14.9), where you can enter a password for the sheet.

Tip - When you enter a password, the same dialog box appears a second time. You must reenter the password to confirm that you have typed it correctly.


Figure 14.9
You can password protect a sheet, or you can choose to use no password.

7. Notice that the password is optional. If you don't want to use a password, just press Enter.

The entire spreadsheet is now protected (that is, it is read-only), except for the cells that you selected and unprotected. You can enter data in those cells, but you can't alter any other cells in the spreadsheet; a message tells you that you can't alter a protected cell (see Figure 14.10).

Think of Cell Protection (from the Cell Attributes dialog box under the Format menu) as an attribute of each cell that can be turned on or off. It's on by default for all the cells of a spreadsheet. You can activate protection for all the cells that have that attribute by choosing Sheet Protection from the Tools menu.

With the cells protected, you won't accidentally alter them.

Tip - If you used a password to protect the sheet, you have to enter that password before you can turn off sheet protection.


Figure 14.10
StarOffice prevents you from altering protected cells.

Use a password for sheet protection when several people are working with or viewing your file. This prevents them from changing things when they don't know any better, or from changing things on purpose to make the numbers look better.

Hiding Cells

You can even use protection to hide information in your spreadsheet so that it isn't visible onscreen.

Suppose your spreadsheet has everyone's salary as part of the expenses categories. You want everyone to review the spreadsheet, but they don't need to see the salary information.

From the Cell Protection tab of the Cell Attributes dialog box under the Format menu, you can select the Hide All checkbox to make cells invisible (see Figure 14.11). This assumes that the spreadsheet isn't already protected, in which case you can't even use this dialog box.

If you hide information, be sure to use a password when you turn on sheet protection; otherwise, everyone can turn off sheet protection and view the hidden information!

Figure 14.11
You can hide cells so that they don't appear onscreen at all.

Tip - If you need to use cell and sheet protection, experiment a little before handing out proprietary information to others.


Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours

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Hour 14: Entering Spreadsheet Data

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