Calc Guide

Chapter 1
Introducing Calc
Using Spreadsheets in LibreOffice
Copyright
This document is Copyright © 2005–2012 by its contributors as listed below. You may distribute it
and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General Public License
(http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons Attribution
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), version 3.0 or later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors
Barbara Duprey
Gabriel Godoy
Jean Hollis Weber
John A Smith

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:
[email protected]

Acknowledgments
This chapter is based on Chapter 1 of the OpenOffice.org 3.3 Calc Guide. The contributors to that
chapter are:
Rick Barnes Nicole Cairns Peter Kupfer
Jean Hollis Weber Krishna Aradhi Andy Brown
Alexandre Martins Anthony Petrillo Gary Schnabl
Barbara M Tobias

Publication date and software version

Published 3 May 2012. Based on LibreOffice 3.4.6.

Note for Mac users

Some keystrokes and menu items are different on a Mac from those used in Windows and Linux.
The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in this chapter. For a more
detailed list, see the application Help.

Windows or Linux Mac equivalent Effect

Tools > Options menu LibreOffice > Preferences Access setup options
selection
Right-click Control+click Opens a context menu
Ctrl (Control) z (Command) Used with other keys
F5 Shift+z+F5 Opens the Navigator
F11 z+T Opens the Styles and Formatting window

Documentation for LibreOffice is available at http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation

Contents
Copyright.............................................................................................................................. 2
Note for Mac users...............................................................................................................2
What is Calc?........................................................................................................................5
Spreadsheets, sheets, and cells.........................................................................................5
Parts of the main Calc window........................................................................................... 5
Title bar........................................................................................................................................ 5
Menu bar..................................................................................................................................... 6
Toolbars....................................................................................................................................... 6
Formatting toolbar...................................................................................................................... 10
Formula Bar............................................................................................................................... 10
Right-click (context) menus........................................................................................................ 11
Individual cells............................................................................................................................ 11
Sheet tabs.................................................................................................................................. 11
Status bar.................................................................................................................................. 12
Starting new spreadsheets............................................................................................... 13
Starting a new document from a template..................................................................................14
Opening existing spreadsheets........................................................................................15
Opening CSV files.............................................................................................................. 15
Saving spreadsheets......................................................................................................... 17
Saving a document automatically.............................................................................................. 17
Saving as a Microsoft Excel document...................................................................................... 17
Saving as a CSV file.................................................................................................................. 18
Saving in other formats.............................................................................................................. 19
Password protection..........................................................................................................19
Protecting a spreadsheet .......................................................................................................... 19
Changing an existing password................................................................................................. 20
Navigating within spreadsheets....................................................................................... 21
Going to a particular cell............................................................................................................ 21
Moving from cell to cell.............................................................................................................. 21
Moving from sheet to sheet........................................................................................................ 23
Selecting items in a sheet or spreadsheet...................................................................... 24
Selecting cells............................................................................................................................ 24
Selecting columns and rows...................................................................................................... 25
Selecting sheets........................................................................................................................ 26
Working with columns and rows......................................................................................27
Inserting columns and rows....................................................................................................... 27
Deleting columns and rows........................................................................................................ 27
Working with sheets.......................................................................................................... 28
Inserting new sheets.................................................................................................................. 28

Introducing Calc 3
 Moving and copying sheets....................................................................................................... 29
Deleting sheets.......................................................................................................................... 30
Renaming sheets....................................................................................................................... 30
Viewing Calc....................................................................................................................... 31
Using zoom................................................................................................................................ 31
Freezing rows and columns....................................................................................................... 31
Splitting the screen.................................................................................................................... 32
Using the Navigator........................................................................................................... 34
Moving quickly through a document........................................................................................... 35
Choosing a drag mode............................................................................................................... 36
Using document properties.............................................................................................. 36

4 Introducing Calc
What is Calc?
Calc is the spreadsheet component of LibreOffice. You can enter data (usually numerical) in a
spreadsheet and then manipulate this data to produce certain results.
Alternatively, you can enter data and then use Calc in a ‘What if...’ manner by changing some of
the data and observing the results without having to retype the entire spreadsheet or sheet.
Other features provided by Calc include:
• Functions, which can be used to create formulas to perform complex calculations on data.
• Database functions, to arrange, store, and filter data.
• Dynamic charts; a wide range of 2D and 3D charts.
• Macros, for recording and executing repetitive tasks; scripting languages supported include
LibreOffice Basic, Python, BeanShell, and JavaScript.
• Ability to open, edit, and save Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
• Import and export of spreadsheets in multiple formats, including HTML, CSV, PDF, and
PostScript.

If you want to use macros written in Microsoft Excel using the VBA macro code in
Note LibreOffice, you must first edit the code in the LibreOffice Basic IDE editor. See
Chapter 12, Calc Macros.

Spreadsheets, sheets, and cells

Calc works with elements called spreadsheets. Spreadsheets consist of a number of individual
sheets, each sheet containing cells arranged in rows and columns. A particular cell is identified by
its row number and column letter.
Cells hold the individual elements—text, numbers, formulas, and so on—that make up the data to
display and manipulate.
Each spreadsheet can have many sheets, and each sheet can have many individual cells. In Calc
3.4, each sheet can have a maximum of 1,048,576 (65,536 rows in Calc 3.2 and earlier) and a
maximum of 1024 columns.

Parts of the main Calc window

When Calc is started, the main window looks similar to Figure 1.

If any part of the Calc window in Figure 1 is not shown, you can display it using the
View menu. For example, View > Status Bar will toggle (show or hide) the Status
Note Bar. It is not always necessary to display all the parts, as shown; show or hide any of
them, as desired.

Title bar
The Title bar, located at the top, shows the name of the current spreadsheet. When the
spreadsheet is newly created, its name is Untitled X, where X is a number. When you save a
spreadsheet for the first time, you are prompted to enter a name of your choice.

Parts of the main Calc window 5

Figure 1: Parts of the Calc window

Menu bar
Under the Title bar is the Menu bar. When you choose one of the menus, a sub-menu appears with
other options. You can modify the Menu bar, as discussed in Chapter 14, Setting Up and
Customizing Calc.
• File contains commands that apply to the entire document such as Open, Save, Wizards,
Export as PDF, and Digital Signatures.
• Edit contains commands for editing the document such as Undo, Changes, Compare
Document, and Find and Replace.
• View contains commands for modifying how the Calc user interface looks such as
Toolbars, Full Screen, and Zoom.
• Insert contains commands for inserting elements such as cells, rows, columns, sheets,
and pictures into a spreadsheet.
• Format contains commands for modifying the layout of a spreadsheet such as Styles and
Formatting, Paragraph, and Merge Cells.
• Tools contains functions such as Spelling, Word Count, Bibliography, Gallery, and
Macros.
• Data contains commands for manipulating data in your spreadsheet such as Define
Range, Sort, and Filter.
• Window contains commands for the display window such as New Window, and Close
Window.
• Help contains links to the Help file bundled with the software, What's This?, Help, and
License Information.

Toolbars
Calc has several types of toolbars: docked (fixed in place), floating, and tear-off. Docked toolbars
can be moved to different locations or made to float, and floating toolbars can be docked.

6 Introducing Calc
Four toolbars are located under the Menu bar by default: the Standard toolbar, the Find toolbar, the
Formatting toolbar, and the Formula Bar.
The icons (buttons) on these toolbars provide a wide range of common commands and functions.
You can also modify these toolbars, as discussed in Chapter 14, Setting Up and Customizing Calc.
Placing the mouse pointer over any of the icons displays a small box, called a tooltip. It gives a
brief explanation of the icon’s function. For a more detailed explanation, choose Help > What’s
This? and hover the mouse pointer over the icon. To turn this feature off again, click once or press
the Esc key twice. Tips and extended tips can be turned on or off from Tools > Options >
LibreOffice > General.

Displaying or hiding toolbars

To display or hide toolbars, choose View > Toolbars, then click on the name of a toolbar in the list.
An active toolbar shows a check mark beside its name. Tear-off toolbars are not listed in the View
menu.

Palettes and tear-off toolbars

Toolbar icons with a small triangle to the right will display palettes, tear-off toolbars, and other ways
of selecting things, depending on the icon.
An example of a palette is shown in Figure 2. It is displayed by clicking the small triangle to the
right of the Borders toolbar icon.

Figure 2: Toolbar palette

An example of a tear-off toolbar is shown in Figure 3. Tear-off toolbars can be floating or docked
along an edge of the screen or in one of the existing toolbar areas. To move a floating tear-off
toolbar, drag it by the title bar.

Figure 3: Example of a tear-off toolbar

Parts of the main Calc window 7

Moving toolbars
To move a docked toolbar, place the mouse pointer over the toolbar handle, hold down the left
mouse button, drag the toolbar to the new location, and then release the mouse button.

Figure 4: Moving a docked toolbar

To move a floating toolbar, click on its title bar and drag it to a new location, as shown in Figure 3.

Docking/floating windows and toolbars

Toolbars and some windows, such as the Navigator and the Styles and Formatting window, are
dockable. You can move, resize, or dock them to an edge.
To dock a window or toolbar, hold down the Control key and double-click on the frame of the
floating window (or in a vacant area near the icons at the top of the floating window) to dock it in its
last position.
To undock a window, hold down the Control key and double-click on the frame (or a vacant area
near the icons at the top) of the docked window.

Figure 5: Control+double-click to dock or undock

On some installations, drag and drop is another alternative. To dock a window, click on the title bar
of the floating window and drag to either side of the main window. A dotted frame will show the
area where it will be docked. See Figure 6.

8 Introducing Calc
Figure 6: Drag and drop to dock a window

Customizing toolbars
You can customize toolbars in several ways, including choosing which icons are visible and locking
the position of a docked toolbar.
To access a toolbar’s customization options, use the
down-arrow at the end of the toolbar or on its title bar.
To show or hide icons defined for the selected toolbar,
choose Visible Buttons from the drop-down menu.
Visible icons are indicated by a border around the icon
(Figure 7). Click on icons to hide or show them on the
toolbar.
You can also add icons and create new toolbars, as described in Chapter 16.

Figure 7: Selection of visible toolbar icons

Parts of the main Calc window 9

Formatting toolbar
In the Formatting toolbar, the three boxes on the left are the Apply Style, Font Name, and Font
Size lists (see Figure 8). They show the current settings for the selected cell or area. (The Apply
Style list may not be visible by default.) Click the down-arrow to the right of each box to open the
list.

Figure 8: Apply Style, Font Name and Font Size lists

If any of the icons (buttons) in Figure 8 is not shown, you can display it by clicking the
small triangle at the right end of the Formatting toolbar, selecting Visible Buttons in
Note the drop-down menu, and selecting the desired icon (for example, Apply Style) in
the drop-down list. It is not always necessary to display all the toolbar buttons, as
shown; show or hide any of them, as desired.

Formula Bar
On the left hand side of the Formula Bar is a small text box, called the Name Box, with a letter and
number combination in it, such as A1 in Figure 9. This combination, called the cell reference, is the
column letter and row number of the selected cell.

Figure 9: Formula Bar

To the right of the Name Box are the Function Wizard, Sum, and Function buttons.
Clicking the Function Wizard button opens a dialog from which you can search through a list of
available functions. This can be very useful because it also shows how the functions are formatted.
In a spreadsheet the term function covers much more than just mathematical functions. See
Chapter 7, Using Formulas and Functions, for more details.
Click ∑ into the current cell totals the numbers in the cells above the current cell. If there are no
numbers above the current cell, then the cells to the left are placed in the Sum formula.
Clicking the Function button inserts an equals (=) sign into the selected cell and the Input line,
thereby enabling the cell to accept a formula.
When you enter new data into a cell, the Sum and Equals buttons change to Cancel and Accept
buttons .

The contents of the current cell (data, formula, or function) are displayed in the Input line, which is
the remainder of the Formula Bar. You can either edit the cell contents of the current cell there, or
you can do that in the current cell. To edit inside the Input line area, click in the area, then type your
changes. To edit within the current cell, just double-click the cell.

10 Introducing Calc
Right-click (context) menus
Right-click on a cell, graphic, or other object to open a context menu. Often the context menu is the
fastest and easiest way to reach a function. If you’re not sure where in the menus or toolbars a
function is located, you may be able to find it by right-clicking.

Individual cells
The main section of the screen displays the cells in the form of a grid, with each cell being at the
intersection of a column and a row.
At the top of the columns and at the left end of the rows are a series of gray boxes containing
letters and numbers. These are the column and row headers. The columns start at A and go on to
the right, and the rows start at 1 and go down.
These column and row headers form the cell references that appear in the Name Box on the
Formula Bar (see Figure 9). You can turn these headers off by selecting View > Column & Row
Headers.

Sheet tabs
At the bottom of the grid of cells are the sheet tabs. These tabs enable access to each individual
sheet, with the visible (active) sheet having a white tab. Clicking on another sheet tab displays that
sheet, and its tab turns white. You can also select multiple sheet tabs at once by holding down the
Control key while you click the names.

Figure 10: Choose tab color

From Calc 3.4, you can choose colors for the different sheet tabs. Right-click on a tab and choose
Tab Color from the context menu to open a palette of colors (see Figure 10). To add new colors to
the palette, see “Color options” in Chapter 14, Setting up and Customizing Calc.

Parts of the main Calc window 11

Status bar
The Calc status bar provides information about the spreadsheet and convenient ways to quickly
change some of its features.

Figure 11: Left end of Calc status bar

Figure 12: Right end of Calc status bar

Sheet sequence number ( )

Shows the sequence number of the current sheet and the total number of sheets in the
spreadsheet. The sequence number may not correspond with the name on the sheet tab.

Page style ( )
Shows the page style of the current sheet. To edit the page style, double-click on this field. The
Page Style dialog opens.

Insert mode ( )
Click to toggle between INSRT (Insert) and OVER (Overwrite) modes when typing. This field is
blank when the spreadsheet is not in a typing mode (for example, when selecting cells).

Selection mode ( )
Click to toggle between STD (Standard), EXT (Extend), and ADD (Add) selection. EXT is an
alternative to Shift+click when selecting cells. See page 24 for more information.

Unsaved changes ( )
This icon replaces the standard icon if changes to the spreadsheet have not been saved.

Digital signature ( )
If the document has not been digitally signed, double-clicking in this area opens the Digital
Signatures dialog, where you can sign the document. See Chapter 6, Printing, Exporting, and
E-mailing, for more about digital signatures.

If the document has been digitally signed, an icon shows in this area. You can double-
click the icon to view the certificate. A document can be digitally signed only after it has been
saved.

Cell or object information ( )

Displays information about the selected items. When a group of cells is selected, the sum of
the contents is displayed by default; you can right-click on this field and select other functions,
such as the average value, maximum value, minimum value, or count (number of items
selected).

12 Introducing Calc
 When the cursor is on an object such as a picture or chart, the information shown includes the
size of the object and its location.

Zoom ( )
To change the view magnification, drag the Zoom slider or click on the + and – signs. You can
also right-click on the zoom level percentage to select a magnification value or double-click to
open the Zoom & View Layout dialog.

Starting new spreadsheets

You can start a new, blank document in Calc in several ways.
• From the operating system menu, in the same way that you start other programs. When
LibreOffice was installed on your computer, in most cases a menu entry for each
component was added to your system menu. If you are using a Mac, you should see the
LibreOffice icon in the Applications folder. When you double-click this icon, LibreOffice
opens at the Start Center (Figure 14).
• From the Quickstarter, if it has been enabled in Tools > Options > LibreOffice –
Memory, which is found in Windows, some Linux distributions, and (in a slightly different
form) in Mac OS X. The Quickstarter is an icon that is placed in the system tray or the dock
during system startup. It indicates that LibreOffice has been loaded and is ready to use.
Right-click the Quickstarter icon (Figure 13) in the system tray to open a menu from which
you can open a new document, open the Templates and Documents dialog box, or choose
an existing document to open. You can also double-click the Quickstarter icon to display
the Templates and Documents dialog box.
See Chapter 1, Introducing LibreOffice, in the Getting Started guide for more information
about using the Quickstarter.

Figure 13: Quickstarter menu on Windows 7

• From the Start Center. When LibreOffice is open but no document is open (for example, if
you close all the open documents but leave the program running), the Start Center is
shown. Click one of the icons to open a new document of that type, or click the Templates
icon to start a new document using a template. If a document is already open in
LibreOffice, the new document opens in a new window.

Starting new spreadsheets 13

 Figure 14: LibreOffice Start Center

When LibreOffice is open, you can also start a new document in one of the following ways.
• Press the Control+N keys.
• Use File > New > Spreadsheet.
• Click the New button on the main toolbar.

Starting a new document from a template

Calc documents can also be created from templates. Follow the above procedures, but instead of
choosing Spreadsheet, choose the Templates icon from the Start Center or File > New >
Templates and Documents from the Menu bar or toolbar.
On the Templates and Documents dialog (Figure 15), click the Templates icon on the left (if it is
not already selected), then navigate to the appropriate folder and double-click on the required
template. A new spreadsheet, based on the selected template, opens.
A new LibreOffice installation does not contain many templates, but you can add more by
downloading them from http://templates.libreoffice.org or other sources and installing them on your
computer as described in Chapter 3, Using Styles and Templates in Calc. On some websites you
may find collections of templates that have been packaged into extension (.OXT) files. These are
installed a little differently, as described in Chapter 14, Setting Up and Customizing Calc.

14 Introducing Calc
Figure 15: Starting a new spreadsheet from a template

Opening existing spreadsheets

When no document is open, the Start Center (Figure 14) provides an icon for opening an existing
document or choosing from a list of recently-edited documents.

You can also open an existing document in one of the following ways. If a document is already
open in LibreOffice, the second document opens in a new window.
• Choose File > Open
• Click the Open button on the main toolbar.
• Press Control+O on the keyboard.
• Use File > Recent Documents to display the last 10 files that were opened in any of the
LibreOffice components.
• Use the Open Document selection on the Quickstarter.
In each case, the Open dialog box appears. Select the file you want, and then click Open. If a
document is already open in LibreOffice, the second document opens in a new window.
If you have associated Microsoft Office file formats with LibreOffice, you can also open these files
by double-clicking on them.

Opening CSV files

Comma-separated-values (CSV) files are text files that contain the cell contents of a single sheet.
Each line in a CSV file represents a row in a spreadsheet. Commas, semicolons, or other

Opening CSV files 15

characters are used to separate the cells. Text is entered in quotation marks; numbers are entered
without quotation marks.
To open a CSV file in Calc:
1) Choose File > Open.
2) Locate the CSV file that you want to open.
3) If the file has a *.csv extension, select the file and click Open.
4) If the file has another extension (for example, *.txt), select the file, select Text CSV
(*csv;*txt) in the File type box (scroll down into the spreadsheet section to find it), and then
click Open.
5) On the Text Import dialog (Figure 16), select the Separator options to divide the text in the
file into columns.

Figure 16: Text Import dialog, with Comma (,) selected as the separator and double quotation mark
(“) as the text delimiter.
You can preview the layout of the imported data at the bottom of the dialog. Right-click a
column in the preview to set the format or to hide the column.
If the CSV file uses a text delimiter character that is not in the Text delimiter list, click in the
box, and type the character.
6) The choices in the Other options section determine whether quoted data will always be
imported as text, and whether Calc will automatically detect all number formats, including
special number formats such as dates, time, and scientific notation. The detection depends
on the language settings.
7) Click OK to open the file.

16 Introducing Calc
 Caution
If you do not select Text CSV (*csv;*txt) as the file type when opening the file, the
document opens in Writer, not Calc.

Saving spreadsheets
Spreadsheets can be saved in three ways.
• Press Control+S.
• Choose File > Save (or Save All or Save As).
• Click the Save button on the main toolbar.
If the spreadsheet has not been saved previously, then each of these actions will open the Save As
dialog. There you can specify the spreadsheet name and the location in which to save it.

If the spreadsheet has been previously saved, then saving it using the Save (or
Save All) command will overwrite an existing copy. However, you can save the
Note spreadsheet in a different location or with a different name by selecting File >
Save As.

Saving a document automatically

You can choose to have Calc save your spreadsheet automatically at regular intervals. Automatic
saving, like manual saving, overwrites the last saved state of the file. To set up automatic file
saving:
1) Choose Tools > Options > Load/Save > General.
2) Click on Save AutoRecovery information every and set the time interval. The default
value is 15 minutes. Enter the value you want by typing it or by pressing the up or down
arrow keys.

Saving as a Microsoft Excel document

If you need to exchange files with users of Microsoft Excel who are unwilling or unable to receive
*.ods files, you can save a document as an Excel file (*.xls or *.xlsx).
1) Important—First save your spreadsheet in the file format used by LibreOffice, *.ods. If
you do not, any changes you may have made since the last time you saved it will only
appear in the Microsoft Excel version of the document.
2) Then choose File > Save As.
3) On the Save As dialog (Figure 17), in the File type (or Save as type) drop-down menu,
select the type of Excel format you need. Sensibly, change the file name too.
4) Click Save.

From this point on, all changes you make to the spreadsheet will occur only in the
Caution
Microsoft Excel document. You have changed the name and file type of your
document. If you want to go back to working with the *.ods version of your
spreadsheet, you must open it again.

Saving spreadsheets 17
 Figure 17. Saving a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel format

To have Calc save documents by default in a Microsoft Excel file format, go to

Tools > Options > Load/Save > General. In the section named Default file format
Tip and ODF settings, under Document type, select Spreadsheet, then under Always
save as, select your preferred file format.

Saving as a CSV file

To save a spreadsheet as a comma separated value (CSV) file:
1) Choose File > Save As.
2) In the File name box, type a name for the file.
3) In the File type list, select Text CSV (.csv) and click Save.
You may see the message box shown below. Click Keep Current Format.

4) In the Export Text file dialog, select the options you want and then click OK.

18 Introducing Calc
 Figure 18: Choosing options when exporting to Text CSV

Saving in other formats

Calc can save spreadsheets in a range of formats, including HTML (Web pages), through the Save
As dialog. Calc can also export spreadsheets to the PDF and XHTML file formats. See Chapter 6,
Printing, Exporting, and E-mailing, for more information.

Password protection

Protecting a spreadsheet
Calc provides two levels of document protection: read-protect (file cannot be viewed without a
password) and write-protect (file can be viewed in read-only mode but cannot be changed without
a password). Thus you can make the content available for reading by a selected group of people
and for reading and editing by a different group. This behavior is compatible with Microsoft Excel
file protection.
1) Use File > Save As when saving the document. (You can also use File > Save the first
time you save a new document.)
2) On the Save As dialog, type the file name, select the Save with password option, and
then click Save.

3) The Set Password dialog opens.

Password protection 19
 Figure 19: Two levels of password protection

Here you have several choices:

• To read-protect the document, type a password in the two fields at the top of the dialog
box.
• To write-protect the document, click the More Options button and select the Open file
read-only checkbox.
• To write-protect the document but allow selected people to edit it, select the Open file
read-only checkbox and type a password in the two boxes at the bottom of the dialog
box.
4) Click OK to save the file. If either pair of passwords do not match, you receive an error
message. Close the message box to return to the Set Password dialog box and enter the
password again.

Caution
LibreOffice uses a very strong encryption mechanism that makes it almost
impossible to recover the contents of a document if you lose the password.

Changing an existing password

To change an existing password while the document is open:
1) Use File > Properties to open the spreadsheet properties dialog.

20 Introducing Calc
 2) In the General tab, click the Change Password button, which is located at the top right
corner next to the file name.

Figure 20: Change Password

3) The Set Password dialog opens; see Figure 19.

Navigating within spreadsheets

Calc provides many ways to navigate within a spreadsheet from cell to cell and sheet to sheet. You
can generally use whatever method you prefer.

Going to a particular cell

Using the mouse
Place the mouse pointer over the cell and click.

Using a cell reference

Click on the little inverted black triangle just to the right of the Name Box (Figure 9). The
existing cell reference will be highlighted. Type the cell reference of the cell you want to go to
and press Enter. Cell references are case insensitive: a3 or A3, for example, are the same. Or
just click into the Name Box, backspace over the existing cell reference, and type in the cell
reference you want and press Enter.

Using the Navigator

Click on the Navigator button in the Standard toolbar (or press F5) to display the Navigator.
Type the cell reference into the top two fields, labeled Column and Row, and press Enter. In
Figure 35 on page 35, the Navigator would select cell A7. For more about using the Navigator,
see page 34.

Moving from cell to cell

In the spreadsheet, one cell normally has a darker black border. This black border indicates where
the focus is (see Figure 21). The focus indicates which cell is enabled to receive input. If a group of
cells is selected, they have a highlight color (usually gray), with the focus cell having a dark border.

Using the mouse

To move the focus using the mouse, simply move the mouse pointer to the cell where you want
the focus to be and click the left mouse button. This action changes the focus to the new cell.
This method is most useful when the two cells are a large distance apart.

Navigating within spreadsheets 21

 Figure 21. (left) One selected cell and (right) a group of selected cells

Using the Tab and Enter keys

• Pressing Enter or Shift+Enter moves the focus down or up, respectively.
• Pressing Tab or Shift+Tab moves the focus to the right or to the left, respectively.

Using the arrow keys

Pressing the arrow keys on the keyboard moves the focus in the direction of the arrows.

Using Home, End, Page Up and Page Down

• Home moves the focus to the start of a row.
• End moves the focus to the column furthest to the right that contains data.
• Page Down moves the display down one complete screen and Page Up moves the display
up one complete screen.
• Combinations of Control (often represented on keyboards as Ctrl) and Alt with Home, End,
Page Down (PgDn), Page Up (PgUp), and the arrow keys move the focus of the current
cell in other ways. Table 1 describes the keyboard shortcuts for moving about a
spreadsheet.

Use one of the two Alt+Arrow key combinations to resize the width of a cell. (For
Tip example: Alt+→ increases the width of a cell.)

In this release of Calc, Alt+Up Arrow and Alt+Down Arrow as key combinations to
Note alter row height, are not implemented in the Default key bindings.

Table 1. Moving from cell to cell using the keyboard

Key Combination Movement
→ Right one cell
← Left one cell
↑ Up one cell
↓ Down one cell

22 Introducing Calc
 Key Combination Movement
Control+→ To the next column to the right containing data in that row or to Column
AMJ
Control+← To the next column to the left containing data in that row or to Column A
Control+↑ To the next row above containing data in that column or to Row 1
Control+↓ To the next row below containing data in that column or to
Row 1048576
Control+Home To Cell A1
Control+End To lower right-hand corner of the rectangular area containing data
Alt+Page Down One screen to the right (if possible)
Alt+Page Up One screen to the left (if possible)
Control+Page Down One sheet to the right (in sheet tabs)
Control+Page Up One sheet to the left (in sheet tabs)
Tab To the next cell on the right
Shift+Tab To the next cell on the left
Enter Down one cell (unless changed by user)
Shift+Enter Up one cell (unless changed by user)

Customizing the effect of the Enter key

You can customize the direction in which the Enter key moves the focus, by selecting Tools >
Options > LibreOffice Calc > General.
The four choices for the direction of the Enter key are shown on the right hand side of Figure 22. It
can move the focus down, right, up, or left. Depending on the file being used or on the type of data
being entered, setting a different direction can be useful.

Figure 22: Customizing the effect of the Enter key

The Enter key can also be used to switch into and out of the editing mode. Use the first two options
under Input settings in Figure 22 to change the Enter key settings.

Moving from sheet to sheet

Each sheet in a spreadsheet is independent of the others, though they can be linked with
references from one sheet to another. There are three ways to navigate between different sheets in
a spreadsheet.

Navigating within spreadsheets 23

Using the keyboard
Pressing Control+Page Down moves one sheet to the right and pressing Control+Page Up
moves one sheet to the left.

Using the mouse

Clicking on one of the sheet tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet selects that sheet.
If you have a lot of sheets, then some of the sheet tabs may be hidden behind the horizontal
scroll bar at the bottom of the screen. If this is the case, then the four buttons at the left of the
sheet tabs can move the tabs into view. Figure 23 shows how to do this.
Notice that the sheets here are not in number order. Sheets may have their positions moved
around (see Moving and copying sheets). The Status bar shows that Sheet7 is in position three
of the eight sheets in the book.

The sheet tab arrows that appear in Figure 23 only appear if you have some sheet
Note tabs that can not be seen. Otherwise, they appear faded.

Move to the first sheet

Move left one sheet

Move right one sheet

Move to the last sheet

Sheet tabs

Figure 23. Sheet tab arrows

Selecting items in a sheet or spreadsheet

Selecting cells
Cells can be selected using a number of methods and in a variety of combinations and quantities.

Single cell
Left-click in the cell. The result will look like the left side of Figure 21. You can verify your selection
by looking in the Name Box.

Range of contiguous cells

A range of cells can be selected using the keyboard or the mouse.
To select a range of cells by dragging the mouse:
1) Click in a cell.
2) Press and hold down the left mouse button.
3) Move the mouse around the screen.
4) Once the desired block of cells is highlighted, release the left mouse button.

24 Introducing Calc
To select a range of cells without dragging the mouse:
1) Click in the cell which is to be one corner of the range of cells.
2) Move the mouse to the opposite corner of the range of cells.
3) Hold down the Shift key and click.

You can also select a contiguous range of cells by first clicking in the STD field on
the status bar and changing it to EXT, before clicking in the opposite corner of the
Tip range of cells. If you use this method, be sure to change EXT back to STD or you
may find yourself extending the selection unintentionally.

To select a range of cells without using the mouse:

1) Select the cell that will be one of the corners in the range of cells.
2) While holding down the Shift key, use the cursor arrows to select the rest of the range.
The result of any of these methods looks like the right side of Figure 21.

You can also directly select a range of cells using the Name Box. Click into the
Name Box as described in “Using a cell reference” on page 21. To select a range
Tip of cells, enter the cell reference for the upper left-hand cell, followed by a colon (:),
and then the lower right-hand cell reference. For example, to select the range that
would go from A3 to C6, you would enter A3:C6.

Range of non-contiguous cells

1) Select the cell or range of cells using one of the methods above.
2) Move the mouse pointer to the start of the next range or single cell.
3) Hold down the Control key and click or click-and-drag to select another range of cells to
add to the first range.
4) Repeat as necessary.

You can also select a non-contiguous range of cells by first clicking twice in the
STD field on the status bar to change it to ADD, before clicking on a cell that you
want to add to the range of cells in selected in step 3 above. This method works
Tip best when adding single cells to a range. If you use this method, be sure to
change ADD back to STD or you may find yourself adding more selections
unintentionally.

Selecting columns and rows

Entire columns and rows can be selected very quickly in LibreOffice.

Single column or row

To select a single column, click on the column identifier letter (see Figure 1).
To select a single row, click on the row identifier number.

Multiple columns or rows

To select multiple columns or rows that are contiguous:
1) Click on the first column or row in the group.
2) Hold down the Shift key.
3) Click the last column or row in the group.

Selecting items in a sheet or spreadsheet 25

To select multiple columns or rows that are not contiguous:
1) Click on the first column or row in the group.
2) Hold down the Control key.
3) Click on all of the subsequent columns or rows while holding down the Control key.

Entire sheet
To select the entire sheet, click on the small box between the A column header and the 1 row
header.

Figure 24. Select All box

You can also press Control+A to select the entire sheet.

Selecting sheets
You can select either one or multiple sheets. It can be advantageous to select multiple sheets at
times when you want to make changes to many sheets at once.

Single sheet
Click on the sheet tab for the sheet you want to select. The tab for the selected sheet becomes
white (see Figure 23).

Multiple contiguous sheets

To select multiple contiguous sheets:
1) Click on the sheet tab for the first desired sheet.
2) Move the mouse pointer over the sheet tab for the last desired sheet.
3) Hold down the Shift key and click on the sheet tab.
All the tabs between these two sheets will turn white. Any actions that you perform will now affect
all highlighted sheets.

Multiple non-contiguous sheets

To select multiple non-contiguous sheets:
1) Click on the sheet tab for the first desired sheet.
2) Move the mouse pointer over the sheet tab for the second desired sheet.
3) Hold down the Control key and click on the sheet tab.
4) Repeat as necessary.
The selected tabs will turn white. Any actions that you perform will now affect all highlighted sheets.

All sheets
Right-click any one of the sheet tabs and choose Select All Sheets from the context menu.

If a color has been set for the tab, then on selection the lower edge of the tab has
Note the color and the remainder of the tab is white.

26 Introducing Calc
Working with columns and rows

Inserting columns and rows

Columns and rows can be inserted individually or in groups.

When you insert a single new column, it is inserted to the left of the highlighted
column. When you insert a single new row, it is inserted above the highlighted row.
Note
Cells in the new columns or rows are formatted like the corresponding cells in the
column or row before (or to the left of) which the new column or row is inserted.

Single column or row

Using the Insert menu:
1) Select the cell, column, or row where you want the new column or row inserted.
2) Choose either Insert > Columns or Insert > Rows.
Using the mouse:
1) Select the cell, column, or row where you want the new column or row inserted.
2) Right-click the header of the column or row.
3) Choose Insert Rows or Insert Columns.

Multiple columns or rows

Multiple columns or rows can be inserted at once rather than inserting them one at a time.
1) Highlight the required number of columns or rows by holding down the left mouse button on
the first one and then dragging across the required number of identifiers.
2) Proceed as for inserting a single column or row above.

Deleting columns and rows

Columns and rows can be deleted individually or in groups.

Single column or row

To delete a single column or row:
1) Select the column or row to be deleted.
2) Choose Edit > Delete Cells from the menu bar.
Or,
1) Right-click on the column or row header.
2) Choose Delete Columns or Delete Rows from the context menu.

Multiple columns or rows

Multiple columns or rows can be deleted at once rather than deleting them one at a time.
1) Highlight the required columns or rows by holding down the left mouse button on the first
one and then dragging across the required number of identifiers.
2) Proceed as for deleting a single column or row as above.

Instead of deleting a row or column, you may wish to delete the contents of the
Tip cells but keep the empty row or column. See Chapter 2, Entering, Editing, and
Formatting Data, for instructions.

Working with columns and rows 27

Working with sheets
Like any other Calc element, sheets can be inserted, copied, moved, deleted, and renamed.

Inserting new sheets

There are several ways to insert a new sheet. The fastest method is to click on the Add Sheet
button . This inserts one new sheet at that point, without opening the Insert Sheet dialog.
Use one of the other methods to insert more than one sheet, to rename the sheet at the same
time, or to insert the sheet somewhere else in the sequence. The first step for all of the methods is
to select the sheets that the new sheet will be inserted next to. Then use any of the following
options.
• Choose Insert > Sheet from the menu bar.
• Right-click on the sheet tab and choose Insert Sheet.
• Click in an empty space at the end of the line of sheet tabs.

Figure 25. Creating a new sheet

Each method will open the Insert Sheet dialog (Figure 20). Here you can select whether the new
sheet is to go before or after the selected sheet and how many sheets you want to insert. If you are
inserting only one sheet, there is the opportunity to give the sheet a name.

Figure 26: Insert Sheet dialog

28 Introducing Calc
Moving and copying sheets
You can move or copy sheets within the same spreadsheet by using either the mouse (drag and
drop) or a dialog. Drag and drop does not work if you wish to move or copy a sheet to a different
spreadsheet; instead, you need to use the dialog.

Using the mouse

To move a sheet to a different position within the same spreadsheet, click on the sheet tab and
drag it. Two little triangles indicate where the sheet will be dropped (see Figure 27). The mouse
pointer (not shown in the illustration) may change to include an indicator; the indicator symbol
varies with your operating system.

Figure 27: Dragging a sheet to move it

To copy a sheet within the same spreadsheet, hold down the Control key (Option key on Mac)
while you click on the sheet tab and drag it. The mouse pointer may change to include a plus sign
or other indicator; the symbol varies with your operating system.

Using a dialog
The Move/Copy dialog provides the opportunity to specify exactly where you want the sheet to go
(in the same or a different document, and what its name will be, at the same time as moving or
copying occurs.

When moving or copying sheets between different spreadsheets, be sure that both
Note documents are open.

Follow these steps:

1) In the current document, right-click on the sheet tab you wish to move or copy.
2) Select Move/Copy Sheet from the context menu.
3) On the Move/Copy Sheet dialog (Figure 28):
• Select the action: Move or Copy.
• To document: select the document where you want to place the sheet. By default, the
field will show the current location. If you have another spreadsheet document open, its
name will appear in the drop-down list along with -new document-.
• Insert before: select the position within the target document.
• New name: you can rename the sheet you are moving or assign a different name to the
copied sheet. If you do not enter a name, Calc creates a default name.
4) When you are done, click OK.

If you choose -new document- as the location, a new spreadsheet will be

Caution created. This may cause conflicts with formulas linked to other sheets in the
previous location. If you accidentally move a sheet, you can fix it by moving or
copying the sheet back to the original location.
This caution also applies for moving sheets to other existing documents.

Working with sheets 29

 Figure 28: Move/Copy sheet dialog

Deleting sheets
Sheets can be deleted individually or in groups.

Single sheet
Right-click on the tab of the sheet you want to delete and choose Delete Sheet from the
context menu, or choose Edit > Sheet > Delete from the Menu bar. Either way, an alert will ask
if you want to delete the sheet permanently. Click Yes.

Multiple sheets
To delete multiple sheets, select them as described earlier, then either right-click over one of
the tabs and choose Delete Sheet from the context menu, or choose Edit > Sheet > Delete
from the Menu bar.

Renaming sheets
The default name for the a new sheet is SheetX, where X is a number. While this works for a small
spreadsheet with only a few sheets, it becomes awkward when there are many sheets.
To give a sheet a more meaningful name, you can:
• Enter the name in the Name box when you create the sheet, or
• Right-click on a sheet tab and choose Rename Sheet from the context menu; replace the
existing name with a different one.
• Double-click on a sheet tab to open the Rename Sheet dialog.

30 Introducing Calc
 Sheet names must start with either a letter or a number; other characters including
spaces are not allowed. Apart from the first character of the sheet name, allowed
Note characters are letters, numbers, spaces, and the underscore character. Attempting
to rename a sheet with an invalid name will produce an error message.

Viewing Calc

Using zoom
Use the zoom function to change the view to show more or fewer cells in the window.
In addition to using the Zoom slider on the Status bar (see page 13), you can open the Zoom
dialog and make a selection on the left-hand side.
• Choose View > Zoom from the Menu bar, or
• Double-click on the percentage figure in the Status bar at the bottom of the window.

Figure 29. Zoom dialog

Optimal
Resizes the display to fit the width of the selected cells. To use this option, you must first
highlight a range of cells.
Fit Width and Height
Displays the entire page on your screen.
Fit Width
Displays the complete width of the document page. The top and bottom edges of the page may
not be visible.
100%
Displays the document at its actual size.
Variable
Enter a zoom percentage of your choice.

Freezing rows and columns

Freezing locks a number of rows at the top of a spreadsheet or a number of columns on the left of
a spreadsheet or both. Then when scrolling around within the sheet, any frozen columns and rows
remain in view.

Viewing Calc 31
Figure 30 shows some frozen rows and columns. The heavier horizontal line between rows 3 and
14 and the heavier vertical line between columns C and H denote the frozen areas. Rows 4
through 13 and columns D through G have been scrolled off the page. The first three rows and
columns remained because they are frozen into place.
You can set the freeze point at one row, one column, or both a row and a column as in Figure 30.

Freezing single rows or columns

1) Click on the header for the row below where you want the freeze or for the column to the
right of where you want the freeze.
2) Choose Window > Freeze.
A dark line appears, indicating where the freeze is put.

Figure 30. Frozen rows and columns

Freezing a row and a column

1) Click into the cell that is immediately below the row you want frozen and immediately to the
right of the column you want frozen.
2) Choose Window > Freeze.
Two lines appear on the screen, a horizontal line above this cell and a vertical line to the
left of this cell. Now as you scroll around the screen, everything above and to the left of
these lines will remain in view.
Unfreezing
To unfreeze rows or columns, choose Window > Freeze. The check mark by Freeze will vanish.

Splitting the screen

Another way to change the view is by splitting the window, also known as splitting the screen. The
screen can be split horizontally, vertically, or both. You can therefore have up to four portions of the
spreadsheet in view at any one time.
Why would you want to do this? An example would be a large spreadsheet in which one of the
cells has a number in it that is used by three formulas in other cells. Using the split-screen
technique, you can position the cell containing the number in one section and each of the cells with
formulas in the other sections. Then you can change the number in the cell and watch how it
affects each of the formulas.

32 Introducing Calc
 Figure 31. Split screen example

Splitting the screen horizontally

To split the screen horizontally:
1) Move the mouse pointer into the vertical scroll bar, on the right-hand side of the screen,
and place it over the small button at the top with the black triangle.

Figure 32. Split screen bar on vertical scroll bar

2) Immediately above this button, you will see a thick black line (Figure 32). Move the mouse
pointer over this line, and it turns into a line with two arrows (Figure 33).

Figure 33. Split-screen bar on

vertical scroll bar with cursor

3) Hold down the left mouse button. A gray line appears, running across the page. Drag the
mouse downwards and this line follows.
4) Release the mouse button and the screen splits into two views, each with its own vertical
scroll bar. You can scroll the upper and lower parts independently.
Notice in Figure 31, the Beta and the A0 values are in the upper part of the window and other
calculations are in the lower part. Thus, you can make changes to the Beta and A0 values and
watch their effects on the calculations in the lower half of the window.

Viewing Calc 33
 You can also split the screen using a menu command. Click in a cell immediately
Tip below and to the right of where you wish the screen to be split, and choose
Window > Split.

Splitting the screen vertically

To split the screen vertically:
1) Move the mouse pointer into the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the screen and place
it over the small button on the right with the black triangle.

Figure 34: Split bar on horizontal scroll bar

2) Immediately to the right of this button is a thick black line (Figure 34). Move the mouse
pointer over this line and it turns into a line with two arrows.
3) Hold down the left mouse button, and a gray line appears, running up the page. Drag the
mouse to the left and this line follows.
4) Release the mouse button, and the screen is split into two views, each with its own
horizontal scroll bar. You can scroll the left and right parts of the window independently.

Removing split views

To remove a split view, do any of the following:
• Double-click on each split line.
• Click on and drag the split lines back to their places at the ends of the scroll bars.
• Choose Window > Split to remove all split lines at the same time.

Using the Navigator

In addition to the cell reference boxes (labeled Column and Row), the Navigator provides several
other ways to move quickly through a spreadsheet and find specific items.

To open the Navigator, click its icon on the Standard toolbar, or press F5, or choose View >
Navigator on the Menu bar, or double-click on the Sheet Sequence Number in the
Status Bar. You can dock the Navigator to either side of the main Calc window or leave it floating.
(To dock or float the Navigator, hold down the Control key and double-click in an empty area near
the icons at the top.)
The Navigator displays lists of all the objects in a spreadsheet document, grouped into categories.
If an indicator (plus sign or arrow) appears next to a category, at least one object of this kind exists.
To open a category and see the list of items, click on the indicator.

To hide the list of categories and show only the icons at the top, click the Contents icon . Click
this icon again to show the list.
Table 2 summarizes the functions of the icons at the top of the Navigator.

34 Introducing Calc
 Figure 35: The Navigator in Calc

Table 2: Function of icons in the Navigator

Icon Action
Data Range. Specifies the current data range denoted by the position of the cell
cursor.

Start/End. Moves to the cell at the beginning or end of the current data range, which
you can highlight using the Data Range button.

Contents. Shows or hides the list of categories.

Toggle. Switches between showing all categories and showing only the selected
category.

Scenarios. Displays all available scenarios. Double-click a name to apply that

scenario. See Chapter 9, Data Analysis, for more information.

Drag Mode. Choose hyperlink, link, or copy. See “Choosing a drag mode” for details.

Moving quickly through a document

The Navigator provides several convenient ways to move around a document and find items in it:
• To jump to a specific cell in the current sheet, type its cell reference in the Column and Row
boxes at the top of the Navigator and press the Enter key; for example, in Figure 35 the cell
reference is A7.
• When a category is showing the list of objects in it, double-click on an object to jump
directly to that object’s location in the document.
• To see the content in only one category, highlight that category and click the Toggle icon.
Click the icon again to display all the categories.
• Use the Start and End icons to jump to the first or last cell in the selected data range.

Using the Navigator 35

 Ranges, scenarios, pictures, and other objects are much easier to find if you have
given them informative names when creating them, instead of keeping Calc’s default
Tip Graphics 1, Graphics 2, Object 1, and so on, which may not correspond to the
position of the object in the document.

Choosing a drag mode

Sets the drag and drop options for inserting items into a document using the Navigator.

Insert as Hyperlink
Creates a hyperlink when you drag and drop an item into the current document.

Insert as Link
Inserts the selected item as a link where you drag and drop an object into the current
document.

Insert as Copy
Inserts a copy of the selected item where you drag and drop in the current document. You
cannot drag and drop copies of graphics, OLE objects, or indexes.

Using document properties

To open the Properties dialog for a document, choose File > Properties.
The Properties dialog has six tabs. The information on the General page and the Statistics page is
generated by the program. Other information (the name of the person on the Created and Modified
lines of the General page) is derived from the User Data page in Tools > Options.
The Internet page is relevant only to HTML documents. The file sharing options on the Security
page are discussed elsewhere in this book.
Use the Description and Custom Properties pages to hold:
• Metadata to assist in classifying, sorting, storing, and retrieving documents. Some of this
metadata is exported to the closest equivalent in HTML and PDF; some fields have no
equivalent and are not exported.
• Information that changes. You can store data for use in fields in your document; for
example, the title of the document, contact information for a project participant, or the name
of a product might change during the course of a project.
This dialog can be used in a template, where the field names can serve as reminders to users of
information they need to include.
You can return to this dialog at any time and change the information you entered. When you do so,
all of the references to that information will change wherever they appear in the document. For
example, on the Description page (Figure 36) you might need to change the contents of the Title
field from the draft title to the final title.
Use the Custom Properties page (Figure 37) to store information that does not fit into the fields
supplied on the other pages of this dialog box.

36 Introducing Calc
Figure 36: The Description page of the document’s Properties dialog

Figure 37: Custom Properties page, showing drop-down lists of names and types
When the Custom Properties page is first opened in a new document, it may be blank. However, if
the new document is based on a template, this page may contain fields.
Click Add to insert a row of boxes into which you can enter your custom properties.
• The Name box includes a drop-down list of typical choices; scroll down to see all the
choices. If none of the choices meet your needs, you can type a new name into the box.
• In the Type column, you can choose from text, date+time, date, number, duration, or yes/no
for each field. You cannot create new types.
• In the Value column, type or select what you want to appear in the document where this
field is used. Choices may be limited to specific data types depending on the selection in
the Type column; for example, if the Type selection is Date, the Value for that property is
limited to a date.
To remove a custom property, click the button at the end of the row.

Using document properties 37

 To change the format of the Date value, go to Tools > Options > Languages and
Tip change the Locale setting. Be careful! This change affects all open documents, not
just the current one.

38 Introducing Calc