Exploring Different Spreadsheet Views
Once you create a spreadsheet (which we will do in the next chapter), Calc provides different ways for you to view the information in the spreadsheet. Calc also provides tools that allow you to highlight certain information in the spreadsheet and zoom in and out on the data in the spreadsheet.
To Hide The Column And Row Headings
One aspect of your spreadsheet's view that you can control is whether or not the column and row headers are visible. There may be times when you wish to remove these headers so that you can concentrate on the data in the spreadsheet.
To hide the column and row headers, click the View menu, then click Column and Row Headers. This removes the checkmark from the feature and turns off the headers. To turn the headers back on, repeat the process.
To Add Value Highlighting
Value highlighting allows you to “colorize” the information in your spreadsheet so you can easily discern between the results of a formula, numerical data (such as numbers or dates), and text. To turn on value highlighting, click the View menu, then select Value Highlighting. You can also turn this feature on using the key combination Ctrl + F8.
When value highlighting is turned on, the results of formulas appear in green, and other numerical information such as number entries, dates, or times appear in blue. Since text is not considered a value, text entries will remain in black (remember that this is value highlighting and only formulas and numerical entries are considered values by Calc). To turn off value highlighting, click the View menu, then select Value Highlighting to remove the checkmark next to this View menu selection, or press Ctrl + F8.
To Use Page Break Preview
The page break preview shows where the page breaks will fall in your spreadsheet. This allows you the opportunity to either change the orientation of the spreadsheet on the page (from, say, portrait to landscape) or adjust the margins on the spreadsheet. Calc also supplies you with the ability to place manual breaks in a spreadsheet to determine where page breaks will fall (working with and printing spreadsheet pages is covered in Chapter 14 in the section “Manipulating Spreadsheet Pages”).
To view the current page breaks in your spreadsheet, click the View menu, then click Page Break Preview. Figure 1.11 shows a Calc spreadsheet in the Page Break Preview mode. Note that the spreadsheet data is chopped off by the page break and so this spreadsheet will need to be manipulated to get a good hard copy of the data.
Figure 1.11. You can quickly view the page breaks in your spreadsheets using the page break preview.
To turn off the page break preview, click the View menu, then click Page Break Preview to remove the checkmark next to the feature. You will be returned to the standard Calc view.
To Use the Zoom
By default, your spreadsheet is displayed at 100% in the workspace window. The zoom feature is a very straightforward tool that you use to zoom in or zoom out on your spreadsheet. Zoom can be used to view an entire spreadsheet to check the overall layout, or it can be used to zoom in on a particular area of the spreadsheet.
To use zoom, click the View menu, then click Zoom. The Zoom dialog box will appear (see Figure 1.12). You can quickly zoom from 50% to 200% (option buttons are provided in 25% increments) on your spreadsheet.
Figure 1.12. Zoom allows you to view your spreadsheet using a range of zoom settings.
Additional views are also available in the Zoom dialog box:
Page width— This view provides a view of the spreadsheet where the borders of the spreadsheet are visible on the window.
Entire page— This view provides a complete view of the spreadsheet in the workspace window.
Variable— This view provides a click box that allows you to set custom zoom settings for your spreadsheet.
Note
There is also an additional setting on the Zoom dialog box called Optimal. It will be “grayed out” (disabled) unless you actually have a portion of your spreadsheet selected. This setting then places the selection in the “optimal” view.
Once you select your zoom setting in the Zoom dialog box, click the OK button to put that setting in force. You can also quickly open the Zoom dialog box by double clicking on the zoom setting that appears on the Status bar. Be advised that the zoom setting you select for a spreadsheet will become the default for all spreadsheets that you open in Calc.
To View Full Screen
Another useful view is the full-screen view, which temporarily removes the title bar, menu bar, toolbars (excluding the Main toolbar), and the status bar from the Calc window. This allows you to use the entire space available on your screen to actually view your spreadsheet.
To use the full-screen view, select the View menu, then select Full Screen. Your spreadsheet will take up all the window space from top to bottom.
With the menus and toolbars gone, you may be wondering how you turn the full-screen view off. At the top of the Main toolbar at the left of the window, a button appears that looks like a computer monitor. Click the button to turn off the full-screen view and return to the standard Calc window.
To Freeze Column and Row Headings
On large spreadsheets, viewing the information on the screen can become problematic when you scroll down or to the right in the spreadsheet and can no longer see the column headings or row headings (respectively) that you have placed in the spreadsheet.
It is extremely frustrating to scroll through a spreadsheet where you can see the data, but can't see the heading that tells you what that data is supposed to mean. A fix for this problem is freezing column and row headings in the spreadsheet.
For example, if you have taken the time to label your rows and columns in the spreadsheet using headings, you can freeze these headings so that they are visible no matter where you have scrolled to in the spreadsheet. This means that even in the most mammoth spreadsheet, you can still use the headings to remind you what a particular column or row of information in the spreadsheet is telling you.
To freeze your column and row headings, click in the cell that is after the row or rows you want to freeze and directly below the column headings you wish to freeze. To help this make sense, take a look at Figure 1.13. On this spreadsheet, we wanted to freeze the columns containing the Customer Number and the First Name and Last Name of the employees. So, when you scroll to the right in the spreadsheet, you can still see what data goes with which employee. We also wanted to be able to see the column headings when we scrolled, which are in row 12.
Figure 1.13. You can freeze column and row headings in your spreadsheets.
So, to freeze these items correctly, cell D13 was selected. This cell is directly to the right of the columns we wanted to freeze and just below the row we wanted to freeze.
Once you select the cell that will dictate which rows and columns are frozen, select the Windows menu, and then select Freeze. (Figure 1.13 shows a spreadsheet with frozen headings. Note the vertical and horizontal lines that show where the various headings have been frozen.) You can now scroll anywhere in the spreadsheet and the specified row and column headings will remain in view. To “unfreeze” the headings, select the Windows menu, and then select Freeze to remove the checkmark next to the feature.
To Split Calc Windows
Another useful viewing tool that Calc provides is the ability to split a spreadsheet window into two different windows. This is useful when you want to compare data on a spreadsheet with a second set of data that is located on the same spreadsheet but that is located a number of rows and columns away so that you cannot view the two sets of data simultaneously (on one screen, even when using the zoom).
Splitting the Calc window into two separate windows containing the same spreadsheet allows you to scroll the two windows so that the formerly widely spaced pieces of information are now side by side, or directly above or beneath each other.
Note
You can't use the freeze and split features together. If you want to split a Calc window and have headings frozen, you will have to unfreeze the headings before you place the split.
You can split the window horizontally, vertically, or both, depending on which cell you select before turning on the split feature. Once you select the cell, select the Window menu, then select Split. Each separate window created by the split will have its own scrollbars, allowing you to scroll in each window separately.
For example, let's say you have a list of employees and want to compute the data on two employees that are at opposite ends of a spreadsheet list. Since you only need to split this spreadsheet horizontally, click in the first column of the spreadsheet in a cell that is in the row that you want the split to appear above. Figure 1.14 shows a spreadsheet that has been split horizontally into two windows. Note that two employees' data have been placed in close proximity using the two windows to compare the data.
Figure 1.14. Split your spreadsheet into multiple windows to easily view different parts of the spreadsheet simultaneously.
When you have finished working with split windows, select the Window menu, then select Split to return to a single window.