Excel and Google Sheets
Lesson 1 / 20
Filbek
Spreadsheet basics
Cell addresses, data types, autofill, freezing the header
Chapter 1. Working with spreadsheets
15 minutes
4 questions
A spreadsheet is a sheet of cells: offices, shops, schools and accounting all keep their numbers in one. The best known are Microsoft Excel and the free Google Sheets (in the browser, nothing to install). Almost everything in this course works the same in both.
Cell addresses
Columns are letters (A, B, C…), rows are numbers (1, 2, 3…). A cell's address is column + row.
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Product | Price | Qty | Total |
| 2 | Bread | 4000 | 3 | |
| 3 | Milk | 12000 | 2 | |
| 4 | Tea | 25000 | 1 |
B3 is the price of "Milk" (12000). A2:A4 is the range from A2 to A4.
Data types
| Type | Example | Tell-tale sign |
|---|---|---|
| Number | 4000, 3.5 |
right-aligned by default |
| Text | Bread |
left-aligned |
| Date | 14.10.2026 |
really a number (a count of days) — so dates can be subtracted |
| Formula | =B2*C2 |
starts with = |
💡 If a number is left-aligned, it's probably stored as text (e.g. there's a space in front). Calculations won't work with such a "number".
Working fast
- Autofill: select a cell and drag the small square at its bottom-right corner — a sequence (1, 2, 3… or Monday, Tuesday…) or a formula carries on.
- Freeze the header (Freeze panes): View → Freeze → top row. The header stays visible as you scroll down.
- Ctrl + ↓ / → jumps to the end of the data; Ctrl + Z undoes.
Rules for a clean table
- One column — one kind of data (only prices, only dates).
- The first row holds the headers.
- No blank rows and no merged cells — then sorting and pivot tables work properly.