Spreadsheet basics

Open Sheets from the app launcher and press New spreadsheet. The grid never runs out: keep scrolling down or to the right, or keep pressing an arrow key, and more rows and columns appear, the way they do in Excel. Only the part you actually use is saved, so an empty row costs nothing. It saves continuously, the same way documents do, and the chip in the top right says whether it is Saved, Saving, Reconnecting or has hit a Save issue.

Moving around#

The grid takes the keyboard seriously, because that is the whole speed of a spreadsheet. Start typing on a selected cell and it begins editing with what you typed.

Select more than one cell and a small readout appears beside the formula bar with Sum, Avg, Min, Max and Count for the selection, plus the range you have selected written as A1:C10. Drag the small square at the bottom right corner of a selection to fill it down or across; formulas move their references with them as they go, and a reference written with a dollar sign, such as $B$2, stays put.

Rows, columns and size#

• Press Rows and columns in the bar at the bottom to insert a row above the one you are on, insert a column to its left, or delete the row or column you are on. Everything after it moves along with its formatting and pictures; formulas that point at the moved cells are not rewritten, so check them after a big move.
• Drag the edge of a column header or a row number to resize it. Double-click that same edge to put it back to the default.
• The bar above the grid says where your data is, for example Data in A1:F120.

Formatting cells#

Press Format cells in the bar at the bottom. It applies to everything you have selected, not just the active cell.

Bold, italic and underline also have the usual shortcuts, ⌘B, ⌘I and ⌘U, and work on a whole selection at once. A cell holding a bare web address becomes a link you can open with ⌘ and a click.

Tabs#

One spreadsheet can hold several tabs, listed in the sidebar. Add one with the plus, and right-click a tab to rename, duplicate or delete it; a double-click renames it straight away. Duplicating a tab copies its cells, its column widths, its row heights and its pictures. A workbook always keeps at least one tab.

• Two tabs cannot have the same name, and capitals do not make a name different: next to a tab called Orders you cannot make one called orders. Nemi says Another tab is already called that. when you try.
• Renaming a tab also rewrites every formula that points at it, so a total that reads =SUM(Orders!B2:B40) goes on working after Orders becomes Sales. One ⌘Z takes the new name and the rewritten formulas back together.
• When you reload a spreadsheet, or come back to it in the same browser tab, it opens on the tab you were looking at. The address of the page names that tab too, so a link you copy opens on it.

A tab can also be filled from another Nemi app, so your form responses, your files or your photos arrive as ordinary rows: see Connecting a tab to app data.

How many spreadsheets you can have#