Basic Editing Techniques

When you work with Calc to create and edit your various spreadsheets, it is extremely important that you accurately enter your data, especially numerical values and formulas, otherwise there is no way the spreadsheet will provide you with an accurate portrayal of formula results. Spreadsheet software like Calc definitely subscribes to the adage “garbage in, garbage out.”

While we've already discussed basic data entry, let's look at some of the basic editing techniques and spreadsheet maintenance commands that will help when building simple and complex spreadsheets alike.

To Edit during Data Entry

While entering text or values in a cell, you do have the ability to edit your work if you make a mistake. As you are entering data, you can quickly back up and delete a typo using the Backspace key. If you've already entered the data and moved onto another cell before you notice that it is incorrect, you have a couple of different options.

If the data entered is really a mess, click on the cell and retype the entire entry. When you press Enter or move to another cell, the original data will be replaced by your new entry.

If the data contains only a one- or two-character mistake, you may want to edit the entry. Double-click on the cell with the error. The insertion point will appear at the far right of the cell. You can use the mouse or the keyboard to move the insertion point and correct the errors in the entry. Several keystrokes that are very useful when editing data directly in the cell follow:

• Arrow keys— Move one character to the right or left.

• Home— Move to the beginning of the entry.

• End— Move to the end of the entry.

• Del— Delete the character to the right of the insertion point.

After editing the data in a cell, press Enter or click the Accept button on the Formula bar to enter the changes to the data.

You can also edit the data in a cell directly on the Input line of the Formula toolbar. Select the cell you wish to edit and then click on the Input line where you would like to place the insertion point. You can use the same movement keys or the Delete and Backspace keys as outlined above while working on the Input line. When you have completed making your changes, press Enter or click the Accept button.

To Clear a Cell's Contents

If you find that you have a cell or cells that contain information that you do not need and you wish to clear the contents, just select the cell (make it the active cell) or cells (select the cells as a range) and then press the Delete key. The Delete Contents dialog box will appear as shown in Figure 2.15.

The Delete Contents dialog box allows you a great deal of flexibility in dealing with the removal of content from a particular cell. You can choose to remove the contents and also remove any formatting that has been placed on the cell (using the Delete all checkbox), or you can be more selective and only remove the entry from the cell and not the formatting. This dialog box even allows you to curb your own “deletion power” in that you can specify that numbers can be deleted from the cell or cells selected, but not formulas. This allows you to preserve formulas in the selected cells, but clear any other contents.

Once you have made your choices via the various checkboxes in the dialog box, click the OK button and the deletion will take place according to your checkbox selections.

To Copy, Cut, and Paste Data

Calc makes it easy for you to copy, cut, paste, and move data in your spreadsheets. You can copy, cut, or move text entries or values, including formulas and functions (although copying and moving formulas and functions requires an understanding of cell referencing, which is discussed in Chapter 5 in the section “Creating Spreadsheet Formulas”).

You can copy cell contents from cell to cell, or from one cell to a range of cells. If you copy the contents of a single cell to multiple cells the data held in the initially copied cell will be pasted into all the other cells in the range. You can also copy an entire range of cells to another range.

1.	Click the cell that holds the data, or select the range that holds the data.
2.	Click the Copy button on the Function toolbar to copy the cell's or cells' contents.
3.	Click on the cell you want to paste the data into, or click on the cell that is at the beginning of the range that you want to copy to.
4.	Click the Paste button on the Function toolbar. The data will be copied to the new location.

When you wish to move data from one place on the spreadsheet to another, you can use the Cut command. Select the cell or cell range as you did when you used the Copy command, but click the Cut button on the Function toolbar instead. The contents will be removed from the selected cell or cells.

To place the information in a different location, click the cell where you want to paste the data, or select the cell range where you will place the data. Then use the Paste button on the Function toolbar to actually paste the information into the appropriate location.

To Change a Column Width

One thing that you will want to know how to do as soon as you begin to work with Calc is change the width of a column to accommodate a long text entry or other data that doesn't fit into the default column width. The default column width is 0.89 inches.

The big question is: How do you know when an entry will not fit within the default column width? The answer is easy. You will find that when you place an entry in the cell directly to the right of the cell that holds the long entry, the long entry in the cell will be truncated, or cut off.

For example, let's say that you've got a column heading that fits just fine within the default column width, such as Employee #. But then you decide to change Employee # to Employee Number (spelling out “number” rather than using the symbol). Figure 2.16 shows a truncated entry in cell A6. Notice that a small triangle appears at the right of the cell, letting you know that the column width does not accommodate the entry in the cell.

To quickly change a column's width, place the mouse pointer on the border between the column that needs to have its width adjusted and the next column. A Sizing tool will appear (see Figure 2.16).

Double-click the Sizing tool on the column's border and the column's width will be changed to accommodate the truncated entry in the column. Remember that this method of adjusting the column width will change the column's width to accommodate the longest entry in the column. This is also useful for shrinking the width of a column when you have all numbers or other one- or two-character entries in a column.

There are other ways to adjust column widths and even change the units of measurement used for column widths. See the section titled “Formatting Columns” in the next chapter for more information.