Using Google Sheets

Google Sheets is Google’s spreadsheet program.  It is available online, offline and as an App for Android.

If you want to access Google Sheets from your Android device, download the Sheets app in Google Play (it is also available for the iPad).

1. Touch the Google Play icon on your device.
2. Find and install the application called Google Sheets.

or simply run Google Drive (if it is installed on your device) and create a spreadsheet (if sheets is not installed, you will be prompted to install it).

Information on a spreadsheet is held in colums (letters) and rows (numbers), making it possible to identify each cell uniquely from its corresponding letter and number.  This allows you to apply formulae (or actions) to specific cells.

Note at the bottom of the screen you have 2 keyboard types, abc (for letters) and 123 (for numbers).

To enter data into a spreadsheet:

• Double-tap a cell.
• Type text or numbers into the cell.
• Touch the Return key on your keyboard to move down to the next cell in your column or touch a different cell to choose it. When you click out of a cell, any changes you’ve made up until that point are saved in the cell.
• Touch the Checkmark button in the top left corner of your screen when you are done editing and want to return to viewing your spreadsheet.

Format cells

• Touch a cell twice to bring up the menu of “Cut”, “Copy”, “Paste”, and “Clear” options.
  • Once cell contents are selected, the formatting toolbar will show options including “Bold”, “Italicize”, “Underline”, and “Strikethrough.”
  • You can also change a cell’s font or background color.
• Touch a cell once to select it and drag the resize handle on the row or column if you would like to select multiple cells.
  • Touch the Cells button that appears at the top of your screen.
  • Touch either of the “Borders” or “Numbers” options to format your cell contents.
  • Once you’ve made your selections, your changes will automatically be applied.
• Pressing and holding a cell or range of cells allows you to cut, copy paste and merge cells.

To add a formula to a cell, you start by typing the = sign and then the instructions and cell references on which to perform those instructions (functions).

A range of cells can be identified at once by putting in the starting refrence cell and the finishing reference cell separated by a colon.  So, the formula:

=a1+b1+c1+d1 could be replaced with:

=SUM(a1:d1)

There are a large number of functions.

To format an entire row or column, touch its header. Touch the header again to bring up a menu of options.  The app doesn’t support column filtering or hiding/unhiding of rows and columns at this time. Rows and columns hidden on the web will remain invisible on your mobile device.  You can’t create charts or images in the app. But you can modify the data displayed in a chart. You’ll see these changes when you see the chart on the web.

Work through an example to see how to use it.