Chapter 1. Preface.

1.1. Welcome to Gnumeric

Gnumeric is a powerful spreadsheet program created by the GNOME project. Gnumeric provides GNOME users with a core application for their desktops.

This manual describes Gnumeric version 1.0. This manual is intended for new readers and advanced readers alike. This chapter gives a quick introduction to Gnumeric.

Gnumeric can be compared to other free and commercial spreadsheets programs based on these features:

Figure 1-1. An example of what Gnumeric can do.

This picture, Figure 1-1, shows some advanced uses of the Gnumeric spreadsheet. These include support for graphing and embedding other GNOME programs. The table on the upper left shows a calculation which has been performed by gnumeric. The rightmost column of numbers (in grey) are automatically calculated based on the numbers in the rest of the table.

1.1.1. What is a spreadsheet?

A spreadsheet is an application to analyze and manage numeric data. It can calculate numbers based on others using sophisticated formuals. For example, Gnumeric can perform most basic statistical analyses. A spreadsheet can also plot data and print out tables of results. Spreadsheets are used to access databases, find results and perform calculations on these results. A spreadsheet can be used to maintain budget data, time allocations, personal finances, membership lists and many tasks which involve the storage, processing and reporting of number based data sets.

1.1.2. Getting started using Gnumeric.

The best way to learn how to use Gnumeric is to begin exploring the program yourself. Enter some data into cells by clicking on the cell, typing a number and hitting return. Gnumeric supports different kinds of data such as numbers, dates, currency and text by formating each kind of data differently and by calculating results appropriate to each data type. To learn more look at the manual section on data entry Chapter 6.

Write a formula by clicking on an empty cell, typing the equals key, clicking on a second cell that has a number, typing the minus key, typing 2 and hitting return. The number you see should be the number in the second cell minus two. Try changing the number in the second cell and watch gnumeric automatically re-calculate the result. For more powerful functions see the section on formulas Section 6.2 later in this manual.

You can format the data, by changing the text colour, adding borders and changing the placement. Explore the bottom toolbar and the menu that opens when you click on a cell with the rightmost mouse button. Look at Chapter 9 later in this manual.

If you would like to learn more about Gnumeric, read this manual, visit the Gnumeric home page, ask friends who use spreadsheets or read a book on how to use Excel, since Gnumeric behaves almost exactly like Excel. If you have questions you can also send them to the Gnumeric mailing list at