Chapter 9 Make Calc Dance for You -...

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“A dvanced” doesn’t necessarily mean “complicated.” With a little

practice, OOo Calc’s advanced features will help you make elegant

spreadsheets for almost any home or office need.

Chapter 9

Make CalcSpreadsheetsDance for YouBy Lalaine “Lizza” Capucion

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Creating “Natural-Language” FormulasOOo Calc can compute any formula as long as the syntax is right. With Microsoft Excel, youhave to know the coordinates of the values you want to compute. But OOo Calc has a“natural language,” meaning you can create formulas using column and/or row labels.

Using the file Sales.ods, you will make a “natural-language” formula.

Our original formula in cellE4 was =D4*0.3. Instead ofusing that formula, let’schange the coordinate D4 tothe word Sales, because weare computing sales multi-plied by 0.3, or 30 percent.The results are the same.

Using the “Intelligent Sum” ButtonMaking a “natural-language” formula is fine,especially when you’re working with only onecell, but the Intelligent Sum or Sum button canchange a formula for a number of cells at thesame time.

For example, if you want to know the totalamount of the figures in the Sales column,type “Total Sales” in C15 and change the fontto bold 15-point Garamond. Then place thecell pointer on the cell where you want to putthe total sales amount. (Changing the font isoptional, but it helps your calculation standout.)

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Point & Click OpenOffice.org!

A “natural-language” formula.

The Intelligent Sum button.

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9: Make Calc Spreadsheets Dance for You

Click the Intelligent Sumbutton. It shows a blue bor-der around the column withthe sales values. You canadjust the cell range byusing the arrow key. PressEnter.

How the Intelligent Sum button works.

You see the Total Salesamount.

Total Sales.

Working with Stylist and Autoformat in CalcNext you will work with styles and formatting using the Autoformat function in OOo Calc.In other words, you will design (style) your table to make it more presentable. There aretwo ways to do this.

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You see the Styles andFormatting box. ClickHeading. All the headings inyour table automaticallychange.

One way is to put in stylesmanually. Highlight the cellrange you want to format,and then select Format >Styles and Formatting orpress F11.

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The Styles and Formatting option.

The Styles and Formatting box.

Styles output.

Choosing a range to format.

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Another way to format styles is by using the AutoFormat button. Unlike Styles andFormatting, AutoFormat has its own templates for the whole worksheet. Let’s see howit works.

Highlight the main work-sheet. In this case, this is allthe cells from A3 to F15.

The highlighted worksheet.

Select Format > AutoFormator click the AutoFormatbutton.

The AutoFormat menu option and button.

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The spreadsheet now has anew look.

This displays the AutoFormatbox. Here you can choosefrom several formats. It has apreview feature so that youcan easily visualize the out-put. You can also add cus-tom formats and formattingoptions, such as the NumberFormat, Borders, Font,Pattern, Alignment, andAutoFit Width and Height.Choose the Default formatand uncheck the AutoFit Width and Height, because you want to retain the originaldimensions. Click OK.

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The AutoFormat box.

AutoFormat output.

Letting Scenario Manager Help with What-If ProjectionsThe Scenario Manager is another useful OOo Calc tool. It is used to make in-depth calcula-tions or to create formulas that include a what-if situation.

Let’s look at our table. Let’s say the Incentive formula needs to be changed because you wantto give a 30% incentive for every salesperson who makes sales of $4,000 and more. You alsowant to note that those with sales of $3,999 or less are not eligible for the incentive.

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First, I put the incentivemultiplier—0.3 percent, or30% of a salesperson’sproduction—under the TotalSales figure.

Next, you change theformula in cell E4. Type=IF(D4>4000;D4*$D$17;0).The incentive is now auto-matically computed if Salesis greater than $4,000, and0 if it’s less than. Rememberto use a ; (semicolon) as theformula separator. Youshould also put a $ (dollarsign) before and after the Din D17 in the formula tomake it an absolute value.You can now copy theformula from cells E5 to E13 to automatically get the incentives for the other salespeople.

The incentive multiplier.

The what-if projection.

In other words, the formulasays the following: If a cer-tain salesperson achievessales of $4,000 or greater,his or her incentive is theresult of Sales multiplied by0.3. If his or her sales areless than $4,000, no incen-tive is given.

Final output.

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You can’t add spreadsheet themes using OOo Calc, and they cannot be modified. But youcan change their styles after you apply them in your spreadsheet, in essence creating yourown themes.

Using DataPilot to Import and ManipulateInformation from Databases Created with Other SoftwareAnother feature of OOo Calc is the DataPilot. You can summarize your data and thenarrange it so that you view only the data you need. It works like Microsoft Excel’s PivotTable. However, DataPilot has limitations. For one thing, it has no PivotChart feature. Also,you cannot have more than eight fields in the data, row, or column areas. However, youcan use the data you already have to make a simple summary.

You also want to know who your outstanding salespeople are, so you will make anotherformula using the what-if projection. If E4 equals 0, it generates an “Amateur” remark incolumn F4, and “Outstanding” otherwise. So type =IF(E4=0;“Amateur”;“Outstanding”).

Using and Creating Spreadsheet ThemesOOo Calc comes with a default set of formatting themes that you can apply to your work-sheet. Click the Choose Theme icon; the Theme Selection box appears. Choose from severalOOo Calc themes, and then click OK.

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The spreadsheet Theme Selection box.The Choose Theme icon.

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Going back to the sample table, let’s make a summary showing only the Last, Sales,Incentive, and Remarks columns.

Select Data > DataPilot >Start. This automaticallyhighlights your data.

The DataPilot menu option.

The Select Source boxappears. Choose Currentselection and click OK.

The Select Source box.

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You now see the DataPilotoptions box. Place the fieldsyou want to include in yoursummary in the desired box.In this case, you want onlyLast, Sales, Incentive, andRemarks. In the Results tobox, choose new sheet andclick OK.

The DataPilot options box.

The summary is placed in anew worksheet. Now youcan view only the data youneed.

Mail Merging with OOo Writer Documents and Calc DataMail Merge is probably one of OOo Calc’s most helpful features. What if you have a letteror email you want to send to all your salespeople? Let’s say the body of the letter for eachsalesperson is essentially the same; the only things you need to change are the names ofthe recipients and information on their sales performance. Imagine how long it would takeyou to create all those letters if you did so manually and you had thousands of salespeople.Mail Merge does this tedious task for you.

Sample output from DataPilot.

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I made a simple letter,mail.odt, using OOo Writer.Take note of the words thatare in bold italic. Thosewords will be replaced auto-matically with the data inyour sales and incentivestable in OOo Calc.

I edited the sales and incen-tive table and took only theneeded data and saved it asmerge1.ods. You will mergethe data from this table tomake multiple copies of theletter for multiple recipients.

The edited sales and incentive table.

A letter using OOo Writer.

First, you need to tell OOo Writer what data you need for merging. Click the Data Sourcesbutton. You see a window containing files for Mail Merge.

Data sources.The Data Sources button.

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Because the file you need ismerge1, click the + box nextto merge1. You see the cate-gories under merge1. Clickthe + box next to Tables; itshows Sheet1. When youclick Sheet1, the whole tableshows on the right side.

Replace all the bold italicwords with the correspon-ding fields by dragging thefield name from the OOoCalc table to the letter. It isreplaced by the field nameenclosed in angle brackets.You are now ready to runthe Mail Merge Wizard.

The data sources directory.

Click-and-drag fields.

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The Mail Merge Wizardgives you an easy step-by-step process. First, select thestarting document. You willuse the default, which is“Use the current docu-ment.” Click Next.

Select Tools > Mail MergeWizard.

The Mail Merge Wizard.

Mail merge step 1.

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The wizard asks for theaddress list. Because youhave already defined theOOo Calc file to use, youwill skip this. Click Next.

Now you need to select thedocument type, which in thiscase is Letter. Click Next.

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Mail merge step 2.

Mail merge step 3.

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You don’t need to create asalutation for this document,so click Next.

Mail merge step 4.

The wizard skips step 5because you don’t need toadjust the layout. In step 6,you have the option of pre-viewing and editing yourdocument, but becauseyou’ve already edited thefile, just click Next.

Mail merge step 6.

When you click Next, theMail Merge process starts.

The mail merge process.

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In the next step, the wizardasks if you want to personal-ize the mail merge docu-ment. Skip this for now andclick Next.

Mail merge step 7.

You will save the mergeddocument as a single file, soenable the “Save mergeddocument” and “Save assingle document” options,and click Save Documents.

Mail merge final step.

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Give the file a name, such asmailmerge.odt, and clickSave.

Saving.

You’re almost done. ClickFinish.

Finish.

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Open mailmerge.odt to viewthe merged file.

Opening the merged file.

You now have the finalmerged file. Whether you’redealing with several dozenletters or several thousand,Mail Merge does the workquickly and painlessly.

Final mail merge output.

Summing UpSo there you have it. You’ve seen how useful and practical Calc can be in several commonspreadsheet situations. Keep in mind that the more you use Calc, the more you’ll appreciateand become familiar with its time-saving features.

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Chapter 9 Make Calc Dance for You -...

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