How to use Google Sheets - Basic tutorial, formulas, and more - Android
Spreadsheets are an incredibly powerful tool for countless professions — if you know how to use them. In years past you’d have to spend hundreds of dollars on software and countless hours researching to do anything worthwhile. Now, with the help Google Sheets and our in-depth guide, you can be up and running in just a few minutes for free!
Whether you’re a complete novice or have some experience with Excel or other spreadsheet programs, our beginner’s guide to how to use Google Sheets will cover exactly what you need to know to get stared. Feel free to use the menu on the left to skip ahead to the sections most relevant for you.
Google Sheets is a cloud-based spreadsheet program that’s an part of Google’s office suite, called G Suite. Alongside Google’s other cloud-based services like Google Drive, Docs, Slides, and of course, Gmail, G Suite offers a comprehensive productivity platform for businesses and students alike.
Read also: How to use Google Docs: Basic tutorial, plus tips and tricks
Odds are you’ve at least seen a spreadsheet program before, and Google Sheets doesn’t stray far from the tried-and-true design. You enter or import data to analyze it, do complex calculations, or just keep it stored safely for later reference.
What really sets Google Sheets apart from competitors is the fact that it’s completely free to use. You just need a Google account, which takes a few minutes or less to make.
The best comparison for Google Sheets is Microsoft Excel, which has been the leading spreadsheet program more than three decades. Those with Excel experience will have a much easier timing learning how to use Google Sheets, as it works almost exactly the same.
For those who have a large catalog of documents in Microsoft’s program, you’ll be happy to learn that Google Sheets is entirely compatible with Excel files. You can convert the two back and forth with ease.
The vast majority of established Excel functions have exact equivalents in Google Sheets. In fact, for the basic data management tasks we cover in this guide there is virtually no difference whatsoever between the two. For very advanced users, Excel offers slightly more powerful charting tools and support for extremely large datasets. Google Sheets is limited to 2 million cells of data.
Even so, Google Sheets does have a few advantages over Excel:
Before we get into the nitty gritty of how to use Google Sheets, there are a few key terms you should know. They’re the same terms you’ll find in any other spreadsheet program, so you may already be familiar with them.
The first step in learning how to use Google Sheets is creating a spreadsheet. There are a few ways to do this, but the most convenient one is directly through the Google Sheets website.
Once there, you may have to log into your Google account if you’re not already logged in. Once you do that, all you need to do is click one of the templates at the top of the page in the Start a new spreadsheet section.
Most often you’ll want to select Blank, but there’s also a variety of templates that might save you some time. You can see the full list of templates by clicking Template Gallery in the upper right.
Regardless of which one you choose, the new spreadsheet will automatically open. Before you start entering or importing data, you should give the spreadsheet a name in the text field at the top left of the screen. Here are those steps again in brief:
How to create a spreadsheet in Google Sheets
As mentioned before, this is only one of many ways to create a new spreadsheet. You can also create them in Google Drive via the menu in the top right (New -> Google Sheets) or in the Google Drive app by tapping the plus icon in the bottom right, then selecting Google Sheets.
Note that each spreadsheet can contain multiple pages, or Sheets. At the bottom of the page you’ll see a tab for each sheet in your spreadsheet, as well as a plus button to add a new sheet.
Now that you’ve created a spreadsheet, it’s time to truly learn how to use Google Sheets. Before we get into entering and manipulating data with formula, take a moment to get familiar with the interface.
When you first open a blank document, you’ll see something that looks like the image below. Here’s a brief description of what each element does to help you get more comfortable.
Most of the interface is self-explanatory, but we’ll get more into the individual controls later in the guide. For now, it’s critical to understand how cell numbering works. This is the backbone of everything that a spreadsheet can do.
Each column is labeled across the stop with a letter, and each row is labeled on the left with a number. A single cell is named by a combination of the two. For example, the active cell above is A1. A range including the first three cells on the left would be A1-A3.
Note that while the active cell above is blue, the color may be different when multiple people are editing the same document. You will be able to see what every editor’s active cell is, which can help prevent mistakes caused by two people editing the same cell at once.
It’s also worth mentioning that you can resize any row or column by clicking and dragging the border between it and an adjacent row. You can also add or delete entire rows or columns by right clicking and selecting the appropriate option from the drop-down menu.
The first real step to creating a functional spreadsheet is adding data. The easiest way to do this is simply click in a cell and type in the data directly. You can press the Enter key to move down to the next row, or Tab key to move right to the next column.
However, this is far from convenient for large data sets. It can take hours to manually enter data (and will take hours to clean up for certain data sets), but you can save that time by importing entire tables at once.
There are several ways to do this. The first is to simply select a table, copy it, and paste it directly into your document. You can use this method to copy lists and other data from websites or other sources with ease.
The other method is to import an existing spreadsheet or supported file type. Virtually all popular spreadsheet file types are supported, and you can find the full list below.
Supported file types in Google Sheets:
To import a file into Google Sheets, click File in the upper right, then Import. Next, you need to find or upload your document and click Select.
Now you can select the import options for your file. Not all of the options seen above may be available depending on the file type. Once you’ve made your decision, click Import data and you’re good to go. Here are those steps again in brief:
How to import data to Google Sheets
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