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UNIT 27 SPREADSHEET MODELLINGP1 Describe the uses of spreadsheet software

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What are spreadsheets?

• A spreadsheet workbook is made up of tables known as worksheets with rows and columns making up individual cells.

• The columns are labelled with letters of the alphabet and the rows as numbered. Each cell has an address, which is its column letter and row number.

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By default a spreadsheet has three workbooks, but you can add more if required. A single spreadsheet workbook can hold very large amount of information. You can basically enter in a worksheet cell

• Text formatted in a variety of ways eg change colours, sizes ect

• Numbers formatted depending what kind of numbers for example currency format placing a symbol and also decimal points. You can also format the appearance of the text.

• Formulae are what make spreadsheets really useful. A formula carries out a calculation on numeric values in other cells.

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Uses of spreadsheets & presenting and interpreting information

• Spreadsheets are very flexible and are used for all sorts of applications. They are most commonly used for storing, manipulating and analysing numeric data.

• The table structure of the worksheet makes it ideal for storing values that represent something, such as the number of sales made in each month.

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How spreadsheet can be used.

A budget spreadsheet / financial

spreadsheet

• What and how Another common type

of spreadsheet is the budget

spreadsheet.

• In this type, columns of figures

representing income or outgoings, to or

from various sources, are totalled up.

Imagine you want to estimate the monthly cost of running a car over four months, a spreadsheet is set up to calculate monthly costs.

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Presenting and interpreting information

• Lots of numbers can be difficult to interpret, making questions such as ‘ are the sales we have been making per each month increasing or decreasing? Difficult to answer.

• Spreadsheets provide tools, such as charts and graphs to enable you to present data in different ways and make interpretation easier. It is much easier to see trends and to identify relationships between data when looking at a graph than it is by looking at raw figures.

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Gadgets – case study• In general terms spreadsheets are used to present

information in such a way that the relationships between different pieces of data can be clarified or interpreted. Another example here would be the idea of sales and production.

• Study the case study Gadgets for U look at the data can you see anything obvious? The Finance Manager cannot really detect anything from the table so he has created a chart which consists of sales of each month, less known costs, which gives a profit figure.

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Charts & graphsSelecting an appropriate type of chart

• The type of chart you need to choose partly depends on the data you have.

• Line and area charts have data points that are joined up, so should be used for data that represents a continuous change, such as temperature over time.

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Column charts

• Column or bar charts are better for financial data, such as the data that is displayed Fig 27

• Pie charts are good at representing proportions, such as the percentage of people who voted for each party at an election.

• Fig 27

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• A single pie chart cannot show

multiple sets of data, as appears in

Pie charts are good at representing

proportions, such as the percentage

of people who voted for each party at

an election

• Fig 27 (We would need separate

charts for North, South, East and

West regions.)

• Choice of 2D or 3D is really personal

preference, but 3D charts can be

hard to read accurately.

• Fig 27

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Gadgets – case study

• The graph makes it easier to identify where the points of interest are.

• Study the graph interpret the relationships between the different sets of data.

• What problems has the data displayed? What questions do they need to address concerning the business?

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Neal Training Case Study• Study case studies Neal Training, a small training

company who carry out vocational training for job seekers.

• What are the reasons has Neela given for preferring to use a spreadsheet rather than a database?

• What disadvantages might there be?

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Examples - how do organisations use spreadsheets?

• A manufacturing company that makes chocolate products could use sales information [what it sells and when] to plan its production.

• For example if sales are high in December, April and September, the company could plan to make more in November, March and August.

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• Another example could be an organisation using spreadsheets to forecast future events. For example, a company that has borrowed money has to pay it back with an additional payment called interest.

• Interest is charged so the lender makes profit. The company would use the spreadsheet to forecast how much the loan will cost if interest rates change.

Using internet find more examples…….

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Interpreting data

Sorting and filtering lists:-

• Dealing with lists and simple databases is one of the many strengths of Excel®.

• People often use Excel® to keep track of lists, rather than using a database product such as Microsoft® Access®, because it is easier to understand and set up. In fact, all you really need to do to set up a list in Excel® is add field titles at the top.

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• Games Store spreadsheet use it to look at how lists can be filtered and sorted to find the cheapest, the newest, the best selling and so on.

• To sort a list, all you need to do is make sure the current cell pointer is somewhere in the column you want to sort, then, from the Home tab click Sort and Filter and chose AZ or ZA.

• Filtering is more sophisticated than sorting, as it lets you pick out a record or records in the list that match certain criteria.

Games sorted by price

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Calculations• Spreadsheets are also useful carrying out calculations

repetitively and as long as the initial formulas are correct, you can rely on the spreadsheet to be accurate. This can be useful in spreadsheets such as monthly salary calculations.

• Functions – examples what they are what calculations they perform Sum average minimum maximum If Count

• Using And and OR.

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List management• Sometimes when you are dealing with large sets of data

spreadsheets with lots of rows and columns. The spreadsheets themselves can be difficult to work with. To help there are different techniques that can be used:-

• Data entry forms are made to make input easier. The user only sees the form and the data is entered into the spreadsheet in the correct column automatically.

• Drop down lists reduces the amount of input that the user has to do. A list of choices that the user is able to select.

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• Freezing panes when there are lots of rows and columns of data, it can be difficult to see the rows headings. You can solve this by ’fixing’ or ‘freezing’

• Mention how you do this……..

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• Links that may help you

• http://www.ehow.com/facts_5005957_spreadsheet-uses.html

• How Do Companies Use Spreadsheets?• http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5244461_do-companies-

use-spreadsheets_.html