Today you open your first spreadsheet. Every Work Experience placement, every small business, every community project eventually needs someone who can put numbers into a grid without messing it up, and that is what a spreadsheet is for. By the end of this lesson you'll have started {{code:05_project_budget}} for your Something Real with real columns, real rows, and data that will actually add up when we learn formulas later.
Think about a shop receipt. The till printed one line per item, with the price beside it. Now imagine you had to add up the total yourself without a calculator: how would you lay that out on paper so the numbers line up neatly? That layout (one row per item, one column per kind of information) is exactly what a spreadsheet is built for.
Four ideas unlock everything you'll do in spreadsheets for the rest of this course. Learn these now and the rest is detail.
| Concept | Why it matters | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Cell — the single box where a row and a column meet, with an address like A1 or D4 | Every piece of data lives in exactly one cell, and formulas later will refer to cells by their address | Click the top-left box and the Name Box (to the left of the formula bar) shows {{cell:A1}} — that is the cell's address |
| Rows and columns — rows run across and are numbered 1, 2, 3; columns run down and are lettered A, B, C | The normal pattern is one row per item and one column per attribute of that item, so you can sort and total properly later | In a project budget: each row is one item (Sausages, Tea bags), and columns are Item / Category / Cost / Notes |
| Sheet tabs — the tabs along the bottom of the file, each holding its own grid | One spreadsheet file can hold several grids (Budget, Suppliers, Stocktake) so you don't have three files to juggle | — |
| Numeric vs character data — numbers you can add or average vs text that is treated as a label | If you type {{code:€8.50}} the cell is stored as text, so SUM will skip it and your total comes out wrong | Type {{code:8.50}} as a plain number, then format the cell as currency so it displays as €8.50 — the cell is still numeric |
Below is a snippet of what you are about to build. Notice: row 1 is headings (bold, text), data starts in row 2, Cost is a plain number (right-aligned), and there are no blank rows or merged cells anywhere.
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Item | Category | Cost | Notes |
| 2 | Sausages (12) | Meat | 5.50 | Centra |
| 3 | Brown bread | Bakery | 2.80 | Local bakery |
| 4 | Tea bags (80) | Drinks | 3.20 | Lidl |
Work through a short sample budget for a community breakfast fundraiser. You'll create {{code:05_project_budget}}, enter column headings, add a few sample rows, and catch the two most common beginner mistakes on the way.
Four mistakes catch almost every beginner in their first spreadsheet lesson. If your work does not look right, check here first.
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| My Cost column numbers are sitting on the LEFT side of the cell, so SUM won't add them later | You typed a currency symbol or letter inside the number (like {{code:€2.80}} or {{code:2.80 euro}}). Delete the cell and re-type just the number ({{code:2.80}}). Format the cell as Currency afterwards if you want the euro sign to show. |
| I merged cells to make a big heading across the top and now I can't select a clean column | Undo with {{kbd:Ctrl+Z}} (Windows/Chromebook) or {{kbd:Cmd+Z}} (Mac). Keep row 1 as normal cells for headings, do not merge. Merged cells break sorting, filtering, and most formulas. |
| I left a blank row in the middle of my data to make it look nicer | Remove the blank row. Spreadsheets treat an empty row as 'end of data', so sort and filter stop there. Use formatting (bold, borders) for visual breaks instead of empty rows. |
| My spreadsheet opened but the grid looks tiny or the zoom is weird | Zoom is usually in the bottom-right corner, slide it to 100%. In Excel Online try {{menu:View -> Zoom}}. In Sheets try {{menu:View -> Zoom -> 100%}}. |
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