Basic Guide to Spreadsheets

A spreadsheet is like a page of paper which is divided into sections, called cells. Each cell can contain one of several things, like a title or label, a numerical constant, or a calculation.

Numerical constants and labels are entered by simply clicking on a cell and typing in the content.
To tell the cell to perform a calculation, click on the cell, hit "=", (without the quotes) and type the equation.
To tell the cell to use the contents of other cells in the calculation, you must refer to the other cells by name. Each cell has a letter and number name; the letter tells the column and the number tells the row.
To make a large group of cells contain the same information, you can perform a "fill". To do this:
- Enter the content in one cell, preferably at the top or side of the group, and then highlight all the cells in the group.
- Click on Edit,
- go down to Fill,
- go over to Down (or Right, or whichever way you want to fill the group).

The only constraint on "fill" is that when Excel fills a group of cells with a formula, it may change the cells which are used in that formula. For example, if you tell a cell to use the constant in the cell to its left in a calculation, when you fill down a column, all the cells will look to the cell on their left for that constant. So, this can be prevented by using dollar signs when calling a cell in a formula. If a dollar sign is placed before both the letter and number parts of a cell name, then that cell name will be exactly the same in all copies of that formula. However, if a dollar sign is used only before the letter, then as the fill is completed, the number of the cell name will maintain the same relationship to the number of the cell which holds the formula (ie, if it is looking two cells above it, every cell to which that formula is "filled" will look two cells above it for the constant). So remember to use dollar signs where appropriate in equations.

A few details that you may need to know:

an exponential, (e raised to the something), it is written as exp(something)
Pi is a built in constant, written pi(). Just leave the blank parentheses there.
Multiplication ALWAYS requires a multiplication sign, or asterik.
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