Google Spreadsheets

As I began my attempt to work with Google Spreadsheet again I was impressed with the ability to use and upload my Excel spreadsheets that I already have.  This is a very useful tool, I don't see Microsoft ever becoming as generous as allowing me to quickly import a Google spreadsheet.  Not only could I import from Microsoft Excel it was surprising to be able to export to Excel as well.    As nice as this was I even enjoyed the template gallery more.   I practiced using the Spreadsheet Template with the current assignment.  It literally took less than 10 minutes.  It was very nice.  I did not feel that this would satisfy the assignment I also did the assignment without a template.  I included links to both if you would like to see both attempts.  I did also like the Keyboard Shortcut page, and the ability of open this in a new window.  I can see this being very useful for instructions and beginners. Now to the actual working on my Google Spreadsheet.

The entering of the information into the cell was exactly like Excel.  Navigation and Formatting of the cell was easy and very intuitive.  For some reason I had a great deal of trouble getting my formulas to work at first.  I had to try for quite a long time, I even tried writing them in Excel and cutting and pasting.  Nothing seemed to work, I would enter the formula and then hit enter and all I could see was the formula.  I finally got so frustrated with it I went away and closed the computer out.  When I came back to the spreadsheet suddenly all of the formulas that I had entered earlier worked fine.  I am not sure if closing it out was a necessary step or it was just at this time.  For the remainder of the time I worked on the program it worked fine.   As I have come to expect from all of the other  Google programs Spreadsheet is very easy and simple to use.

While I did know about the shortcut keys in Excel I generally didn't use them, but I found that Google Spreadsheets really, really likes them.  This took a little getting used to.  There were a couple of times that I tried to use the right click button on the mouse and got mixed results, but the Shortcut Keys worked very well every time. 

It is difficult to pinpoint the easiest part of Spreadsheet, because there were so many different easy parts.  Getting it started and entering the information was very simple.  Entering the comments into the cells was very easy and a very handy program.  I had a little trouble figuring out how to merge cells.  Also the templates were not where Atomic Learning said they would be when I opened Google Drive.  I had to do a search in Google to find them, and once I did I was impressed with the options.  The one function I wanted to find, but was unable was the ability to set up a range so that it would write a text.  That is I wanted it to evaluate the grade and assign the correct letter grade, but I did not find this function.  I am not even sure this is a possiblity.

I do see though how Google Spreadsheets would aide in meeting the Common Core Standards of giving the students the tools necessary to present and manipulate their data.  Then through the actions necessary of producing a Spreadsheet they would develop not only a deeper understanding of the Math concepts but hopefully a greater understanding of how valuable the skills are.