<chapter id="basics">
<chapterinfo>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Pamela</firstname>
<surname>Robert</surname>
<affiliation>
<address><email>pamroberts@blueyonder.co.uk</email></address>
</affiliation>
</author>
<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
</authorgroup>
</chapterinfo>
<title>&kspread; Basics</title>
<note><para>Like the rest of &tde;, &kspread; is highly configurable, which can
cause problems for readers trying to compare the text in a document such as
this with what they see on the version of &kspread; running on their desktop.
To cut down on some of the possibilities for confusion, it it suggested that
when you first start to use &kspread; you set the default options in all pages
of the &kspread; configuration dialog (obtained by selecting
<menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guimenuitem>Configure
&kspread;...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>) except for <guilabel>Completion mode:
</guilabel> in the <guisubmenu>Misc</guisubmenu> page, which should be set to
<guimenuitem>None</guimenuitem>.
</para>
<para>You may also find it helpful to globally <guilabel>Enable tooltips</guilabel>
in &kcontrolcenter; in <menuchoice><guimenu>Appearance &
Themes</guimenu><guimenuitem>Style</guimenuitem></menuchoice>
on the <guilabel>Style</guilabel> page. </para></note>
<sect1 id="starting">
<title>Spreadsheets for Beginners</title>
<para>This section attempts to explain by example what a spreadsheet program
such as &kspread; actually does, and why it is such a useful tool in any
situation where you have to deal with numbers. If you have already used a
spreadsheet program you may wish to skip to the next section.</para>
<para>The first thing to do is to start up &kspread;. You can do this by
<mousebutton>left</mousebutton> clicking on a &kspread; icon if there is one
on your desktop or panel, or you can select
<menuchoice><guimenu>Office</guimenu><guimenuitem>&kspread;</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>
from the K menu.</para>
<para>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="newdocument.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>&kspread; at first run</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
When it has started you will be given the choice of opening a recent
document, creating a new document from a template (with templates categories) or
opening an existing document . Select the <guilabel>General</guilabel> category
on the left and choose the <guilabel>Blank Worksheet</guilabel> template. Then
click the <guibutton>Use This Template</guibutton> button.</para>
<para>Looking at &kspread; once it has started up, you will see a sheet of
empty rectangular cells arranged in numbered rows and lettered columns. This
is where you enter data or formula, text or charts.
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="starting1.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>Screenshot starting1</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</para>
<para>Now, enter the text and values shown in the first 5 rows of the above
screenshot into the same cells of your spreadsheet. Ignore what is in row 7
for the moment. To enter anything into a cell first select the cell by
<mousebutton>left</mousebutton> clicking inside it, then type whatever you
want, then press <keycap>Enter</keycap> or use the arrow keys to move the
selection point to another cell.
</para>
<para>What we have entered so far could be a simple budget for the next two
months, listing how much we think we will be spending for Food, Shelter,
Clothing and any Other expenditure. Now select cell B7 (column B, row 7),
type in <userinput>=B2+B3+B4+B5</userinput> and press <keycap>Enter</keycap>.
Because it begins with a <keycap>=</keycap> symbol &kspread; sees this as a
formula, something it has to calculate, in this case by adding together the
values in the 4 cells B2 to B5, and what is shown in the cell B7 is the result
of that calculation.</para>
<para>You could enter a similar formula into cell C7, except that in this case
it would have to be <userinput>=C2+C3+C4+C5</userinput>, but there is an
easier way which is to Copy cell B7 and Paste it into C7. &kspread; will
automatically adjust the cell references from B.. to C.. when the Paste is
done.</para>
<para>At this point you may think that &kspread; is doing no more than you
could manage with pencil, paper and a calculator, and you could be right, but
remember that this is a very small example of a spreadsheet, doing simple
calculations on only a few numbers. For any reasonably amount of values or data
using a spreadsheet to do the calculations is much quicker and more accurate
than doing them manually.</para>
<para>Also, a spreadsheet lets you play the <quote>What if?</quote> game.
Because each formula is automatically recalculated whenever any of the values
it refers to are changed, you can quickly see what happens if you alter any of
them. Using our example you can see the effect of reducing the amount spent on
food in December by just entering a new value into cell C2. If you had a
spreadsheet that modelled the greenhouse effect accurately you could perhaps
see the effect of a 50 percent reduction in the amount of methane released
into the atmosphere.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="selecting">
<title>Selecting Cells</title>
<para>You can select a single cell or a rectangular area of cells in the
spreadsheet. The selected cell(s) are displayed with a thick black border.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<title>You can select a single cell in one of the following ways</title>
<listitem><para><mousebutton>left</mousebutton> click on it</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>enter the cell reference (for example <userinput>B5</userinput>)
into the cell reference box at the left end of the Formula toolbar and press
<keycap>Enter</keycap></para></listitem>
<listitem><para>use the <menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu><guimenuitem>Goto
Cell...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu option</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>You can also steer your way around with the <keysym>arrow</keysym> keys.
Pressing the <keysym>Enter</keysym> key will move the current selection one
position up, down, left or right depending on the setting in the <guilabel>Misc
</guilabel> page of &kspread;'s <link linkend="configmisc">configuration dialog
box</link>.</para> <para>If you hold the <keycombo
action="simul">&Shift;</keycombo> key down while using the
<keysym>arrow</keysym> keys the selection will move to the start or end of the
block of occupied cells.</para>
<para>To select an area of contiguous cells drag the mouse cursor across the
desired area with the <mousebutton>left</mousebutton> button held down, or enter
the references of the top left and bottom right cells separated by a colon into
the Formula toolbar cell reference box (for example <userinput>B7:C14
</userinput>) and press <keycap>Enter</keycap>, or enter these cell references
in a similar format into the dialog box brought up by <menuchoice><guimenu>
View</guimenu><guimenuitem>Goto Cell...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para>
<para>You can also select an area of cells by selecting the cell in one corner
of the wanted area then holding the <keycombo
action="simul">&Shift; </keycombo> key down while using the
<mousebutton>left</mousebutton> mouse button to select the cell in the opposite
corner.</para>
<para>To select a complete row or column of cells <mousebutton>left
</mousebutton> click on the row number at the left of the worksheet or on the
column letters at the top. To select adjacent rows or columns drag the mouse
pointer over the appropriate row numbers or column letters with the
<mousebutton>left</mousebutton> button held down.</para>
<para>To select non-contiguous cells, click on the first cell you want to select
then hold the <keycombo
action="simul">&Ctrl;</keycombo> key and select the other
cells.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="entering">
<title>Entering Data</title>
<para>Entering data into a cell can be as simple as selecting the cell, typing
your data, then pressing <keycap>Enter</keycap> or moving the selection to
another cell with one of the <keysym>arrow</keysym> keys. Depending on how you
enter the data, &kspread; will interpret it as a number, date, time or text:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
Numbers are entered in the obvious way; <userinput>123</userinput>, <userinput>
-123</userinput>, <userinput>456.7</userinput> or in scientific notation
<userinput>-1.2E-5</userinput>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Dates should be entered in your <quote>System</quote> format, as defined in
the &kcontrolcenter; in <menuchoice><guimenu>
Regional & Accessibility</guimenu> <guisubmenu>
Country/Region & Language</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Time & Dates</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> dialog box. If, for example, you are using the DD/MM/YYYY form
you should enter <userinput>30/03/2002</userinput> for 30th March 2002.
Leading zeroes can be omitted from the day and month fields and only the last
one or two digits of the year need to be entered if the date is in the current
century, for example <userinput>9/1/2</userinput> for 9th January 2002.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Times should also be entered using the <quote>System</quote> format. For
example if you are using a 12 hour clock then enter times in HH:MIN am|pm or
HH:MIN:SS am|pm format such as <userinput>9:42 am</userinput> or <userinput>
10:30:52 pm</userinput>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
&kspread; defines any input data as <quote>text</quote> if it cannot
recognize the data as being a number, date or time.
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<note><para>By default, &kspread; right justifies numbers, dates and times
within a cell and left justifies anything else. This can be a useful guide
to whether you have entered a date or time in the correct format. But
remember that how items are displayed can be changed by altering
the <link linkend="formatdata">cell format</link>.</para></note>
<para>The main text entry box in the Formula toolbar provides an easy way of
editing the contents of a selected cell. Press <keycap>Enter</keycap> or
<mousebutton>left</mousebutton> click on the green tick mark when you are
happy with what you have entered, or click on the red cross to cancel your
edits.</para>
<sect2 id="genericformat">
<title>Generic Cell Format</title>
<para>
&kspread; uses the <quote>Generic</quote> cell format as default. As long
as this format is used, &kspread; autodetects the actual data type depending
on the current cell data. For example if you enter some text into a cell and
later enter a number into the same cell, &kspread; automatically interprets
the new data as a number. If you want to define the type of data yourself, you
can explicitly set it in the <link linkend="formatdata">cell format</link>.
You can change the format back to <quote>Generic</quote> at any time.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="copypaste">
<title>Copy, Cut and Paste</title>
<para>At first glance, &kspread;'s <guimenuitem>Cut</guimenuitem>,
<guimenuitem>Copy</guimenuitem> and <guimenuitem>Paste</guimenuitem> appear
to be similar to these functions in other &tde; applications. Having selected
a cell or cells, you can choose <guimenuitem>Copy</guimenuitem> or
<guimenuitem>Cut</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>Edit</guimenu> menu or from
the drop down menu you get by holding the <mousebutton>right</mousebutton>
mouse button down on a selected cell. You can also use the shortcuts
<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>C</keycap>
</keycombo> or <keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>X</keycap>
</keycombo>, then move the selection to the target cell and choose
<guimenuitem>Paste</guimenuitem> or press <keycombo action="simul">
&Ctrl;<keycap>V</keycap></keycombo>. However there are some
subtleties associated with these functions in &kspread; and these are discussed
below.</para>
<para>If a cell contains a formula then the formula itself is copied rather
than the displayed result, and if the formula contains a reference to another
cell, then that reference is changed by the <guimenuitem>Cut</guimenuitem>
or <guimenuitem>Copy</guimenuitem> and <guimenuitem>Paste</guimenuitem>
operation to point to the cell that is in the same relative position as in
the original cell. For example if cell A2 contains the formula <userinput>
=B3</userinput> and is copied to C4, cell C4 will contain <userinput>=D5
</userinput>.</para>
<para>This may seem to be a rather strange way of doing a copy, but
99 percent of the time it is exactly what is wanted (if it is not then see the
section about <link linkend="absolute">absolute cell references</link>).
For example in the simple shopping list shown below, cell D2 should contain
<userinput>=B2 * C2</userinput>, D3 should be <userinput>=B3 * C3</userinput>,
D4 should be <userinput>=B4 * C4</userinput> and so on. Instead of having to
enter a different formula in each cell, you can just enter the first formula
into D2 and then copy it into the cells below, letting &kspread; adjust the
cell references to suit.</para>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="copy1.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>Screenshot copy1</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
<sect2 id="copypasteareas">
<title>Copying and Pasting Cell Areas</title>
<para>In the above example D2 can be copied into all three cells D3 to D5 at
once by just copying D2 then selecting the complete cell area D3:D5 before
doing the paste.</para>
<para>A rectangular area of cells can be cut or copied in one operation by
selecting the area before doing the cut or copy. Then select the top left
corner cell of the area you want to paste into before doing the paste.</para>
<para>If you cut or copy a rectangular area of cells, say B2:C3, and paste it
into a larger area such as A10:D13 the original pattern of cells will be
repeated to fill the target area.</para>
<para>&kspread; also provides a <quote>Drag and Copy</quote> method for
copying cells down into other cells immediately below or to the
right of the original cell(s). To use this method select the cell(s) to be
copied then position the mouse pointer over the small black square at the
bottom right corner of the selected cell(s) so the cursor changes to a double
headed arrow. Then hold the <mousebutton>left</mousebutton> mouse button down
while you drag the selected cell(s) as far as you wish. Note that cell
references in formulae are incremented according to the
relative position change. Absolute references are not changed.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="specialpaste">
<title>Other Paste Modes</title>
<para>A cell may contain text, a value, or a formula, and may also contain
special font, border or background <link linkend="formatspread">formatting
information</link>. &kspread; has special versions of Paste that let
you handle these items in different ways.</para>
<para><menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu><guimenuitem>Special
Paste...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>brings up the <guilabel> Special
Paste</guilabel> dialog box. By selecting the appropriate item from
the top part of this dialog you can choose to paste just
<guilabel>Text </guilabel>, the cell <guilabel>Format</guilabel>, any
<guilabel>Comment </guilabel> in the cell(s) or <guilabel>Everything
without border</guilabel>. The items in the bottom part of this dialog
box allow you to do simple <link linkend="sumspecialpaste">arithmetic
on an area of cells</link>.
</para>
<para><guimenuitem>Paste with Insertion...</guimenuitem> inserts the copied
cell(s) into the sheet by moving the cells that would otherwise be overwritten
a suitable number of rows of columns down or to the right. It can also be used
to insert complete copied row(s) or column(s) into the worksheet.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="insdel">
<title>Insert and Delete</title>
<para>Use the <keysym>Delete</keysym> key or <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit
</guimenu><guisubmenu>Clear</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Text</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> to remove the text, value or formula from selected cell(s),
row(s) or column(s) without affecting anything else.</para>
<para>To delete everything in the selected cell(s), row(s) or column(s),
including comments and special formatting, use <keycombo action="simul">
&Shift;<keysym>Delete</keysym></keycombo> or choose the <guimenuitem>Delete
</guimenuitem> option from the <guimenu>Edit</guimenu> menu or from the pop
up menu you get when you <mousebutton>right</mousebutton> click on a selection.
</para>
<para>To remove selected row(s) or column(s) completely, use the
<guimenuitem>Delete Rows</guimenuitem> or <guimenuitem>Delete
Columns</guimenuitem> options from the <mousebutton>right</mousebutton> mouse
button pop up menu.</para>
<para>If you select a cell or cells and choose <guimenuitem>Remove Cells...
</guimenuitem> from the <mousebutton>right</mousebutton> mouse button pop up
menu, you can then choose whether other cells in the worksheet will be moved
up or to the left to fill in the space left by the cell(s) you have chosen to
remove.</para>
<para>If you want to insert new, blank, row(s) or column(s) into the
sheet, select row(s) or column(s) where you wish the new row(s) or
column(s) to be placed and choose the <guimenuitem>Insert Rows</guimenuitem>,
<guimenuitem>Insert Columns</guimenuitem> option from the <mousebutton>
right</mousebutton> mouse button pop up menu.</para>
<para>You can insert new cells into the worksheet by selecting the
area where you want them to appear then choosing the <guimenuitem>
Insert Cells...</guimenuitem> option from the <mousebutton>right</mousebutton>
mouse button pop up menu. You will then be asked whether the existing cell(s)
in the selected area should be moved down or to the right to make room for the
new ones.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="simplesums">
<title>Simple Sums</title>
<para>If the first character in a cell is an equals sign (<keycap>=</keycap>)
&kspread; will take the cell contents to be a formula which is to be
calculated. The result of the calculation will be displayed in the cell rather
than the formula itself. For example, enter <userinput>=2+3</userinput>
into a cell and it should display <emphasis>5</emphasis>.</para>
<para>More usefully, a formula can contain references to other cells, so
that <userinput>=B4+A3</userinput> will calculate the sum of the values in
cells B4 and A3, and this calculation will be updated whenever cells B4 or A3
are changed.</para>
<para>As well as addition, a formula can make use of the <keycap>-</keycap>
symbol for subtraction, <keycap>*</keycap> for multiplication, and <keycap>
/</keycap> to perform division. The round bracket symbols <keycap>(</keycap>
and <keycap>)</keycap> can also be used as in normal algebra, so you could
enter more complex formulae such as <userinput>=((B10 + C3) *5 - F11) / 2
</userinput>.</para>
<para>Cells containing a formula will be marked with a small blue triangle
at the bottom left corner if the <guilabel>Show formula indicator</guilabel>
check box in the <menuchoice><guimenu>Format</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Sheet</guisubmenu><guisubmenu>Sheet Properties</guisubmenu>
</menuchoice> dialog is checked.</para>
<para>&kspread; also includes a large number of built-in functions for
applications such as statistical, trigonometrical and financial calculations.
Their use will be examined in more depth in a <link linkend="formulas">
later section</link> of this manual, but if you are interested at this stage
choose <guimenuitem>Function...</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>Insert
</guimenu> menu and take a look through the <guilabel>Function
</guilabel> dialog box that will be displayed..</para>
<para>For the time being, however, the <userinput>SUM</userinput> function may
be of interest as it calculates the sum of all values in a specified area of
cells. For example <userinput>=SUM(B4:C10)</userinput> calculates the sum of
all values in the cell area B4 to C10.</para>
<para>If &kspread; displays a row of <keycap>#</keycap> symbols when you have
entered your formula this usually means that it cannot understand what
you have entered, but if the row of <keycap>#</keycap> symbols ends with a
small red arrow this just means that the cell is not wide enough to display
the complete result, in which case you should either make the cell(s) wider
or change their <link linkend="formatdata">format</link> so that the result
does fit properly.</para>
<sect2 id="recalc">
<title>Recalculation</title>
<para>If the <guilabel>Automatic recalculation</guilabel> box in the
<menuchoice><guimenu>Format</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Sheet</guisubmenu><guisubmenu>Sheet Properties</guisubmenu>
</menuchoice> dialog box is
checked, &kspread; will recalculate the values of cells whenever anything that
affects them is changed in the sheet.</para>
<para>When <guilabel>Automatic recalculation</guilabel> is not checked for the current sheet, you can instruct &kspread; to perform a recalculation at any time by
using the <guimenuitem>Recalculate Sheet</guimenuitem> or <guimenuitem>
Recalculate Document</guimenuitem> option in the <guimenu>Tools</guimenu>
menu or their shortcuts <keycombo action="simul">&Shift;<keysym>F9</keysym>
</keycombo> or <keysym>F9</keysym>.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="sort">
<title>Sorting Data</title>
<para>In the simple example shown below, the data consist of the names and
countries of a number of mountains together with their height above sea level.
&kspread; can sort data such as this in different ways.</para>
<para>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="sort1.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>Screenshot of sorted data</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</para>
<para>We may want the data sorted so that the names are in
alphabetical order. To do this select the area containing the data (A2:C7
in this case) and choose <guimenuitem>Sort...</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>Data</guimenu>
menu. This opens the <guilabel>Sorting</guilabel> dialog box.</para>
<para>Sorting is done alphanumerically, and the default is case sensitive, numbers coming
before uppercase letters which come before lowercase letters, so that cells
containing the entries <userinput>Cat</userinput>, <userinput>bar</userinput>,
<userinput>77</userinput> and <userinput>Bat</userinput> would be sorted into
the following order: <emphasis>77 Bat Cat bar</emphasis>.</para>
<!-- Obsolete, AFAICT (Phil)
<para>The <guimenuitem>Sort Increasing</guimenuitem> and <guimenuitem>Sort
Decreasing</guimenuitem> options from the <guimenu>Data</guimenu> menu options
sort the data according to the contents of the cells in the left column of the
selected area. For more complex sorting select <menuchoice><guimenu>Data
</guimenu><guimenuitem>Sort...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> to bring up the
<guilabel>Sort</guilabel> dialog box.</para>
-->
<para>Using the <guilabel>Sort Criteria</guilabel> page of this dialog box
lets you <guilabel>Sort Rows</guilabel> or <guilabel>Sort Columns</guilabel>.
If you check the <guilabel>First row contains headers</guilabel> box data in the
first row will not be included in the sort operation.
You can choose which column or which row of the data is to be used as a primary sort key and,
if you wish, other columns or rows to be used as secondary and tertiary keys. Using
the example in the above screenshot, choosing column B as the first key and
column C as the second would sort the data by country and, for each country,
by height.</para>
<para>The <guilabel>Options</guilabel> page of the dialog allows you to sort using the
order of items in a custom list such as January, February... instead
of alphanumerically.
The cell format is moved with the cell content, if you select
<guilabel>Copy cell Formatting (Borders, Colors, Text Style)</guilabel>
Uncheck the option <guilabel>Case sensitive sort</guilabel> to get a sort
not depending on capitalization.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="statusbarsum">
<title>The Status bar Summary Calculator</title>
<para>The left hand end of the Status bar shows a summary of the values in
the selected cell(s). According to the setting of the <guilabel>Method of
calc:</guilabel> combo box in the <guilabel>Misc</guilabel> page of
&kspread;'s configuration dialog the summary can be:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Sum</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The value displayed is the sum of the values in the selected
cells.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Min</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The value displayed is the minimum of the values in the selected
cells.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Max</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The value displayed is the maximum of the values in the selected
cells.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Average</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The value displayed is the average of the values in the selected
cells.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Count</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The value displayed is the number of cells containing numeric
values.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>None</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>No summary calculation is performed.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>The method of calculation can also be changed by <mousebutton>right
</mousebutton> clicking on the summary calculation result area of the
Status bar and choosing an item from the pop up menu.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="saving">
<title>Saving your Work</title>
<para>&kspread; saves the complete document, which may include more than one
worksheet, as a single document file.</para>
<para>If you have created a new document, or want to save an existing one
under a different name, use <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>
Save As...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. This will bring up &tde;'s common
<guilabel>Save Document As</guilabel> dialog box.
Choose the folder where you want to save the document and enter a
suitable file name into the <guilabel>Location:</guilabel> text box. &kspread;
documents are normally automatically saved with a <filename>.ods</filename>
extension, you do not need to add this to the filename but do make sure that
the <guilabel>Filter:</guilabel> selection is set to
<guilabel>OASIS OpenDocument SpreadSheet</guilabel>.</para>
<para>To save your document without changing its name, just use <menuchoice>
<guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Save</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para>
<para>You can also save a &kspread; document in a foreign format: see
the Import/Export section for more information
about doing this.</para>
<para>When you save a modified version of an existing document
&kspread; will keep the previous version as a backup file, adding a
<literal>~</literal> to the end of the filename.</para>
<para>&kspread; can provide some protection against losing your work because
of a computer crash or because you have closed &kspread; without saving the
current document. It does this by automatically saving the latest version of
the document you are working on every few minutes using a modified file name.
The autosaved version is normally removed when you next save your document,
so that it will only exist if it is more up to date than the version that was
saved manually.
When you open a document &kspread; checks to see if an autosaved
version exists, and if it finds one it will offer to open that instead.</para>
<para>Autosaved documents are saved with a file name of the form
<filename>.yourfilename.autosave</filename> (note the leading period),
so that <filename>spread1.ods</filename> would be autosaved as
<filename>.spread1.ods.autosave</filename>. The autosave feature is
user configurable in the <link linkend="configinterface">settings dialog</link>.</para>
<sect2 id="templates">
<title>Templates</title>
<para>If you are going to be creating a lot of similar documents you can
save yourself time and trouble by first creating a template and then
using that as the basis for the individual documents.</para>
<para>To do this first create a document containing the common elements,
then save it as a template by choosing <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Create Template From Document...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.
Doing this opens the <guilabel>Create Template</guilabel> dialog box.
Enter a name for your new template into the <guilabel>Name:</guilabel> text
box and press <guibutton>OK</guibutton>. The next time you start a new
document by choosing <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>New
</guimenuitem></menuchoice> or when you next start &kspread; the
startup dialog window will give you the option of creating the
new document from your template.</para>
<para>The <guilabel>Create Template</guilabel> dialog box also lets you
choose a different picture to be displayed above the template name in the
startup dialog window, and lets you save your templates
under different group names, which will appear as different pages in
the dialog.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="printing">
<title>Printing a Spreadsheet</title>
<para>Printing a spreadsheet is basically done by selecting <menuchoice>
<guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Print...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> which
brings up &tde;'s common <guilabel>Print</guilabel> dialog box where you can
choose, among other options, the printer to be used, the number of copies and
whether all or only selected pages are to be printed.</para>
<para>By default &kspread; will print all items in the current worksheet, but
you can restrict this by first selecting the area that you want to be
printed then choosing <guimenuitem>Define Print Range</guimenuitem> from the
<menuchoice><guimenu>Format</guimenu><guisubmenu>Print Range</guisubmenu>
</menuchoice> sub menu.</para>
<para>&kspread; will print as many pages as are necessary to include all
items in the current worksheet. You can quickly see how a worksheet will be
spilt into separate pages for printing by checking the <menuchoice><guimenu>
View</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Show Page Borders</guimenuitem></menuchoice> box. The boundaries
of each printed page will then be marked by colored lines in the
worksheet.</para>
<para>For a more detailed view of what is to be sent to the printer, including
anything you have asked to be included in the page headers and footers (see
below), choose <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Print
Preview...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para>
<para>To improve the appearance of the printed output , you can change the
fonts, colors, borders and sizes of the cells in the worksheet, see the
<link linkend="formatspread">Spreadsheet Formatting</link> section for more
details about how to do this.</para>
<para>You can also use the <guilabel>Page Layout</guilabel> dialog box,
invoked by selecting <menuchoice><guimenu>Format</guimenu><guimenuitem>Page
Layout...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>, to change the orientation of the printed
pages, the paper size (this should be suitable for your printer) and the size
of the page borders.</para>
<para>The <guilabel>Header & Footer</guilabel> page of the <guilabel>
Page Layout</guilabel> dialog box also lets you add text, including items such
as the filename, date and page number to the header and footer, of each
printed page.</para>
<para>The <guilabel>Ranges</guilabel> section of the <guilabel>Options
</guilabel> page of the <guilabel>Page Layout</guilabel> dialog box provides
an alternative way of restricting the printed output to just one part of the
worksheet and allows you to repeat selected column(s) or row(s) on each printed
page. This page also lets you select whether or not to print the grid,
comment indicators and formula indicators, objects and charts.
In the section <guilabel>Scale Printout</guilabel> you can set a scalefactor
or limit the number of pages for the print.</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
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