Cells, rows, columns and sheets

Start a spreadsheet

Open Sheets from the app launcher. Your spreadsheets offers Blank and four templates: Budget, Invoice tracker, Project plan and Price list. Recent spreadsheets lists the ones you've worked on.

You can also start one from Drive with New, SiteSmith Sheets, which saves it in the folder you're in. Click the name at the top left to rename it. Like Docs, Sheets saves as you go; the status beside the name reads Saved to Drive when everything's stored.

The parts of the screen

• Cells sit where a column (A, B, C…) meets a row (1, 2, 3…). Cell E2 is column E, row 2.
• The name box at the left of the formula bar shows the selected cell. Type a cell or a range there (like F13 or A1:G11) and press Enter to jump to it.
• The formula bar shows what's really in the cell: a number, text, or the formula behind a result.
• The sheet tabs at the bottom switch between the sheets in the file.

Enter and change data

• Click a cell and start typing. Press Enter to save and move down, or Tab to move right. Shift+Enter and Shift+Tab go the other way.
• Press F2 to change what's in a cell without retyping it, or click in the formula bar.
• Esc cancels what you're typing.
• Alt+Enter starts a new line inside a cell.
• Delete clears the selected cells (Edit, Delete values).

Select cells

• Drag across cells, or hold Shift and use the arrow keys.
• Click a column letter or row number to select the whole column or row. Shift+Space selects the row, Ctrl+Space the column.
• Ctrl plus an arrow key jumps to the edge of your data.

When you select several numbers, the bottom right corner shows their Sum, Average and Count, without writing a formula.

Rows and columns

Right-click a cell for Insert row above, Insert column left, Delete row and Delete column. The Insert menu also has Insert row below and Insert column right. Formulas that point at moved cells are updated for you.

To change a column's width, drag the line at the right edge of its letter, or double-click that line to fit the text. Format, Column width… sets an exact width in pixels.

Copy and paste

Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V work as you'd expect, including to and from other spreadsheet programs. Edit, Paste values only pastes results without the formulas behind them.