I heard a college placement officer on NPR say that no one today should graduate from college without knowing how to use a spreadsheet. I agree and would go a step further and say that everyone should use a spreadsheet regularly. I hope everyone graduating from an American high school knows how to use a spreadsheet.
When I first got Appleworks, I couldn't figure how to use the spreadsheet. I knew that I could type numbers or words into a cell on it but what good did that do? Even typing 10 in one cell, 23 in another cell and telling a third cell to show the sum didn't seem all that impressive. What was the gain of using a spreadsheet over using a handy, accurate, quick and inexpensive calculator?
It helped to hear that each of the thousands of cells in a spreadsheet is a calculator by itself.
It helped more to realize that the structure of a saved spreadsheet could convert figures in a process over and over at top speed. So, if I want to calculate the standard deviation of a group of numbers, the sheet displays that as soon as the data is entered. I can copy all of the cells that perform that operation and paste them beside the originals, making two calculators that go through the steps I want.
I find Microsoft's Excel excellent and I use it all the time. I used to keep my checkbook up to date but now my money spreadsheet is much faster, more accurate and all I do in the checkbook is record the checks. I think tracking one's money is the easiest regular operation to use a spreadsheet for.
It really is true that showing the data in a chart or graph can make features of a set of figures stand out faster and more completely than just looking at numbers themselves. Excel or other spreadsheets can graph data in many forms instantaneously.
Google docs includes a free spreadsheet that is available on any computer with an internet connection. Open Office offers a complete suite of free standard programs that includes a spreadsheet and much else. Last October, Open Office had been downloaded 100 million times.
