Spreadsheet Vocabulary
- Active Cell
- Cell into which any text or numbers that are entered will be placed.
- Cell address
- Name of cell, taken from the column letter and the row number, e.g. B4 which is column B, the 4th line.
- Cell
- A rectangle in a spreadsheet.
- Chart
- A graph based on selected cells in a spreadsheet. There are many types of
charts.
- Column
- A vertical line of cells, indicated by a letter.
- Formula
- A statement that uses cell addresses and/or numbers and mathematical signs
to designate a calculation. The result of the calculation is placed in the
cell where the formula is created.
- Numbers
- Constant values in a cell. Numbers can consist only of the characters 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 _ + / . E and e. If a numerical entry is too large for the
physical viewing size of a cell, or if the result of a formula is too large
you may see a group of "#"symbols, e.g. ##########. Make the column larger
to see the full number by dragging the right column line. Or you may see a
scientific number, e.g. 23423E+11 instead of the 234234234234 that you entered.
- Numerical formats
- The way that the numbers appear in the cell(s). Formatting choices include
currency (adds a $ and two decimals to all numbers in the formatted cell(s).), percentage (adds a %
and in a formula automatically treats the number as part of 1, e.g. 86% will be treated
as 0.86).
- Range of cells
- A group of cells that you wish to treat as a group, may be contiguous as
for example, cells C1 to E3 in table 7-4. Can also be noncontiguous. A range
of cells can be named.
- Referenced Cell
- A cell that is included in a formula in another cell. This cell may be in
the same worksheet, another worksheet in the same workbook, or in another
workbook.
- Row
- A horizontal line of cells, indicated by a number.
- Text
- Any non-numerical entry. If a cell contains only numbers the data in that cell will be treated as if it were a number unless preceded by
an apostrophe (').
- Workbook
- Collection of related spreadsheets that are saved as one file.
- Worksheet
- One spreadsheet in a workbook.
For more vocabulary see the glossary
Created November 19, 2011