Working in sheets

What is a sheet?

A sheet is a grid of small boxes, called cells. You type a word or a number into each one. It's handy for a budget, a to-do list, an inventory, or anything that fits neatly into rows and columns.

Columns have letters (A, B, C…) along the top of the grid, and rows have numbers (1, 2, 3…) down the side. That gives every cell a name: its column letter, then its row number. The cell in the top-left corner is A1, the one to its right is B1, and the one below it is A2.

A sheet can also do the maths for you, like adding up a column of expenses. That's called a formula, and Formulas walks you through it.

Start a new sheet

On the dashboard, click the round + button in the bottom-right corner and choose New Sheet. Give it a title, and a blank grid opens, ready to fill in.

Already have an Excel or CSV file? Choose Import Documents from the same menu instead and drop in your .xlsx or .csv file. It becomes a cDox sheet. If your Excel file has several worksheets, each one becomes a tab.

Type in a cell

Click a cell and start typing. Press Enter when you're done: what you typed is kept, and you move down to the next cell. There's nothing else to save, cDox does it for you.

Watch out: typing straight into a cell that already has something in it replaces what was there. To change what's in a cell instead of replacing it, double-click the cell, or select it and press Enter. Then you can edit the existing text.

You can also type in the formula bar, the long box just above the grid. It shows what's in the cell you've picked, with more room. That's handy for long text. On a phone, it's often the easiest place to type.

Move around and select cells

Click a cell to pick it. Its name (like A1 or C5) shows on the left of the formula bar. From there, the arrow keys move you from cell to cell, and the grid scrolls along with you.

While you're typing, Tab takes you to the cell on the right, and Enter to the one below. You don't need to add rows or columns ahead of time: when you reach the edge of the grid, a new one is added for you.

To pick several cells at once, drag across them with your mouse. You can also click the first one, then hold Shift and click the last one. Everything in between is selected.

To pick a whole row, click its number on the left. For a whole column, click its letter at the top. For the whole sheet, click the empty square in the top-left corner, where the letters and numbers meet, or press Ctrl+ A.

To unselect everything, press Escape.

Add, remove and sort rows and columns

To add a row or a column, click a cell next to where you want it. Then open the Insert menu in the toolbar and choose Row above, Row below, Column left or Column right.

For everything else, first select the whole row or column by clicking its number or letter. The toolbar buttons then work on the whole row or column:

• The eraser, or the Delete key, clears what's in it, but leaves the empty row or column in place.
• The trash can deletes the row or column completely, and the rest close up the gap.
• The sort button (an arrow next to some lines) puts a column in order, A to Z or smallest to largest. Click it again to flip the order. Each row moves as one piece, so everything on the same row stays together.
• The snowflake freezes rows or columns so they stay on screen while you scroll (see the tip below).

With a mouse, you'll also find these choices by right-clicking a row number or a column letter.

Undo a mistake

Deleted or changed something by mistake? Click the curved arrow pointing left at the start of the toolbar, or press Ctrl+ Z. Do it again to go back further.

To bring back what you just undid, use the arrow next to it, or press Ctrl+ Shift+ Z.

Copy, cut and paste

Select some cells, then copy them with Ctrl+ C. Click where you want them and paste with Ctrl+ V. To move them instead of copying, cut them with Ctrl+ X before you paste.

If you'd rather use the mouse, right-click your selection: Cut, Copy and Paste are in the menu.

This works for one cell, a group of cells, or whole rows and columns. You can also paste data copied from another spreadsheet, like Excel: the rows and columns fall into place on their own.

Use tabs

A sheet can hold several grids, one per tab. For example, one tab for each month of a budget. The tabs sit at the bottom of the grid. Click a tab to go to it, and click + to add one.

To rename a tab, double-click its name. For other choices, right-click the tab, or click the small arrow on the tab you're on. You'll find Rename…, Duplicate, Move left, Move right and Delete. On a phone or tablet, tap the tab you're already on to open this menu.

A formula can also pull a number from another tab. See Use another tab.

Find something in a sheet

Click the magnifying glass in the toolbar, or press Ctrl+ F, then type what you're looking for. The grid jumps to the first cell that matches, even if it's on another tab. Every match on the tab you're looking at is highlighted.

Press Enter to go to the next one, and Shift+ Enter to go back to the previous one.

Zoom in and out

To see the grid bigger or smaller, use the + and − magnifying glasses at the end of the toolbar, or choose Zoom in the right-click menu. You can go from 75% to 200%.

Zoom only changes what you see. It isn't saved into the sheet, and other people keep their own size. To make certain cells stand out for everyone, like a heading or a total, change their text size instead (see Formatting cells).

Print a sheet

To print a sheet, click the printer icon at the top of the editor. Your computer's print window opens. That's also where you can save it as a PDF.

Only the part of the sheet with something in it prints, without the formula bar, the tabs or the outline around the cell you picked. A sheet too wide for the page shrinks to fit, and the page turns sideways when that helps it stay readable.