What Is Spreadsheet Software?

Date First Published: 22nd November 2023

Topic: Computer Systems

Subtopic: Computer Software

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 3/10

Learn about what spreadsheet software is in this article.

Spreadsheet software is used to organise data into grids of rows and columns. It assigns a letter to each column (A-Z) and a number to each row (1-9), allowing cells to be identified by their column and row (e.g. A1, C5, B6). Automated calculations and sorting can be performed on the data to improve accuracy.

Spreadsheet software has replaced paper-based systems, especially for organisations. It is one of the most commonly used productivity software. Some examples of spreadsheet software include Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apache Open Office Calc, and LibreOffice Calc.

Features Of Spreadsheet Software

Common features of spreadsheet software include:

• Formatting and styling - Allows selected cells to be formatted to represent numeric values. Styling options allow fonts, font sizes, background colours, text colours, and cell borders to be changed to enhance the visual presentation.
• Formulas - Allows calculations on the contents of the cell to be performed against another cell. Formulas can be automated to calculate totals, averages, and more, eliminating the need for repetitive calculations.
• Pivot table - Allows users to organise, group, total, average, or sort data.
• Support for creating visual presentations using graphs, charts, and tables by pulling out the data in the spreadsheet.
• Worksheets - A spreadsheet file can contain multiple worksheets, which separate tables containing separate batches of data.
• What-if scenarios - For example, a home user can create a basic what-if scenario to see how changing a single variable, such as the price of electricity, will affect their cashflow forecast.
• Compatibility with other sources and spreadsheet software - Spreadsheet software usually has features that allows users to use data, text and image files from other sources and share data with other word processing, email, database and presentation programs. For example, Excel spreadsheets can be uploaded to Google Drive and used in the web-based Google Sheets.
• Input validation - Some spreadsheet software, like Google Sheets, has features to validate input and display messages if the input does not match certain conditions (e.g. the number is not within the range).

Uses Of Spreadsheet Software

Spreadsheet software is often used for the following purposes:

• Finance - Spreadsheet software is ideal for recording financial data, such as bills, budgets, taxes, transactions, income, cashflow forecasts, and receipts.
• Form data - Spreadsheet software can be used to record form data, such as quizzes, performance reviews, time sheets, surveys, and patient information.
• Lists - Spreadsheet software can be used to manage lists, such as shopping lists and to-do lists.
• Schools - Teachers can use spreadsheets to record assessment and exam scores, identify high and low scores, and track student attendance.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of Spreadsheet Software

• It is more suitable for numeric data than word processing software because it is easier to represent numbers and calculations. This makes it more efficient for storing large amounts of financial or scientific data. Overall, spreadsheet software is more dynamic with data and can sort information to make processing it easier.
• Presentation of data is usually flexible. For example, the formatting, column widths, and row widths, can usually be adjusted to make it easier to navigate.
• The user interface is uusually user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for most people to use.

• It is less user-friendly than other types of productivity software. When handling large amounts of data, users will often find themselves scrolling through hundreds or even thousands of rows and columns to find what they are looking for. This can lead to information overload.
• It can be difficult to identify data errors. Unlike database software, it cannot quickly and accurately resolve errors on its own or flag them up. This makes it easier to make mistakes when entering large amounts of data.
• It is not usually mobile-friendly. Mobile devices do not have large enough screen space for spreadsheets with lots of rows and columns and users will need to scroll a lot to see all the data when viewing a spreadsheet on a mobile device.

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