Running Linux, 5th Edition - Matthias Kalle Dalheimer [133]
To move among sheets, simply click on a sheet tab and it will become the live sheet.
Figure 8-24. A common mortage problem, solved
Figure 8-25. Three sheets to the wind
To add a new sheet, right-click on the sheet area or any one of the sheet tabs to call up the context menu. Then, select Insert Sheet from the menu and the Insert Sheet dialog box appears. Here, designate the names, positions, and number of the new sheets. Note that you can add multiple sheets. You can also bring in sheets from another file; after you browse and select a file, the names of its sheets are displayed for you to choose from.
To delete a sheet from a workbook, first select the sheet you wish to delete by clicking on its tab. Then right-click the sheet bar or live sheet tab and select Delete Sheet. Answer "Yes" in the confirmation dialog to delete the sheet.
To rename a live sheet, right-click the target sheet's tab and select Rename Sheet from the menu that appears. This activates the Rename Sheet dialog, where you can enter the new name for the sheet in the Name field.
To select more than one sheet at a time, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on each sheet tab you wish to select.
Selecting concurrent sheets is useful when entering content, such as column headings or labels, that you wish to have on many sheets. It saves the repetition of setting up multiple sheets with the same information.
If you have a workbook with many sheets and wish to select a long range of contiguous sheets, click on the tab of the leftmost sheet in your target range. Then, while holding down the Shift key, click on the rightmost sheet tab of your target range. This selects all sheets included in that range.
To deselect that same group, hold down the Shift key while clicking on the tab of the first sheet (the leftmost sheet, in this case) you selected in that range.
To deselect a selected sheet (other than the live sheet, which always remains selected), hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on its sheet tab.
If you have a spreadsheet with many sheets, not all the tabs are visible at the bottom. To make a tab visible so you can select its sheet, you'll need to use the sheet navigation arrow buttons at the left of the sheet tabs.
Sorting data
To sort a list or chart of numerical or textual information, first highlight the full range to be sorted (including labels, but excluding unwanted data such as totals) and then select Data → Sort from the main menu. This launches the Sort dialog box, where you can designate the sorting order, among other parameters.
In the case illustrated in Figure 8-26, we want to reorder the data to put the largest responses at top. Therefore, in the Sort dialog we select to sort by the "Responses per Platform" column (where the numbers are) and set the radio button at the right to Descending. Then we press the OK button. Notice how rearranging the order of the source chart automatically registers the new order in the bar graph that was previously generated (see Figure 8-27).
Data sources
Instead of having its own database format, OOoCalc is designed to interact with many different varieties of external databases. Data Sources is the name for OOoCalc's strong feature set for interacting with databases and for linking spreadsheets, forms, and reports to information contained in databases. OOoCalc offers a variety of ways to link to a MySQL or Adabas D database, for example, or many other data sources, including MS Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla, and others.
Figure 8-26. Sorting a simple table
Figure 8-27. Table (and graph) successfully sorted
In OOoCalc , call up the Data Source View by choosing Tools → Data Sources from the main menu, or simply pressing the function key F4. Press F4 again to close the Data Source window.
Having made such a promising introduction, it's a shame to say that Data Sources is outside the scope of this section. It's a shame because interacting with