Why a spreadsheet, not a notebook in a drawer

Word writes. A spreadsheet counts.

In Word you write an essay. In a spreadsheet you put numbers into boxes and it counts them for you.

Think of a grade book. In Word you redo the average with a pencil. In a spreadsheet you change one cell and the average updates itself. Here are March grades:

Subject	Grade
Maths	2
Czech	1
English	3
Science	2

The sum is 2 + 1 + 3 + 2 = 8. There are 4 subjects. The average is 8 ÷ 4 = 2.

Now the teacher changes Science from 2 to 1. In Word you start again: 2 + 1 + 3 + 1 = 7, 7 ÷ 4 = 1.75. In a spreadsheet you only change that one 2. The average moves on its own.

That is not magic. The spreadsheet has a formula in a cell, and it keeps watching those four grades. Once you learn formulas, you will not add on your fingers.

💡

Sheets, not an install. We work in Google Sheets — a spreadsheet in the browser, free. You download nothing. Desktop Excel can do almost the same. When a button or a formula has a different name, we write both versions. For example the total is SUM in English and SUMA in Czech.

What you will see on the screen

When you open sheets.new, you will not see a blank page like in Word. You will see a grid.

At the top a menu: File, Edit… In Excel on a computer the ribbon is thicker. The idea is the same.
Under the menu the formula bar — a long white field. There you see what is really in the cell.
On the left row numbers, at the top column letters: A, B, C…
The first box is A1. Click it. It gets a border. Top left, A1 lights up.

When you type a word in A1 and press Enter, you jump to A2. The spreadsheet is not counting yet — it only remembers text.

⚠️

A Word “table” is not this spreadsheet. In Word you can draw a grid for a menu. It looks similar, but it does not count. If you type =2+2 there, you see the text =2+2. Here in Sheets you see 4. We use a tool that can count.

Four things you will build from this

The course has four small projects. You do not have to do them all at once. Each level adds something. For now it is enough to know what a spreadsheet is for.

🏫 Grade average

One sheet, two columns: subject and grade. At the bottom a sum and an average.

An example we will use later:

A1 Subject, B1 Grade
A2 Maths, B2 2
A3 Czech, B3 1
A4 English, B4 3
A5 Science, B5 2
A6 History, B6 1

Once you know a formula, you type =AVERAGE(B2:B6) in B8. You get 1.8. Change B4 from 3 to 1 — the average jumps to 1.4. No pencil.

💰 Pocket money

Rows = days of the week. Columns = came in / spent / left.

An example for Monday to Wednesday:

Monday: 50 Kč came in, spent 20 Kč → 30 left
Tuesday: 0 came in, spent 15 → −15 left (oops, you are in the minus)
Wednesday: 20 came in, spent 0 → 20 left

The spreadsheet watches the difference. You do not type it by hand — you write one formula and copy it for the whole week. That comes in Formula kid.

📊 Class survey

One question, for example “favourite break snack”. Friends say an answer, you make tally marks in one column.

For example:

roll — 8
apple — 5
bar — 3
nothing — 2

Later you will make a chart from it. For now remember: numbers belong in cells, not in a notebook in a drawer. When you show the spreadsheet to a teacher, you share it with an account — that is lesson three.

🏆 Mini dashboard

One screen: a sum, an average, a maximum and one chart. That is when you are Workbook boss. We will build it bit by bit — not today.

Open the workshop

We will not count now. We just open a blank workbook and check that you know where you are.

Open sheets.new. A blank spreadsheet pops up. If Google asks for an account, ask a parent or use school Workspace. Without an account the workbook will not save.
Look at the top-left corner of the grid. You must see cell A1. Click it. It gets a border. Top left by the formula bar, A1 lights up.
Type your name. For example Ema. Press Enter. The cursor jumps to A2. The name stays in A1.
Click A1 again. In the formula bar at the top there must be the same name. That matters: the cell shows the content, the formula bar shows what is really in it.
Do not save by hand. Google Drive watches the workbook itself. At the top you will see “Saving…” for a moment, then “Saved to Drive”. In desktop Excel it is not like that — there you must press Ctrl+S (on a Mac Cmd+S). We are in the browser, so Drive watches it.

💡

If sheets.new will not open, try typing sheets.google.com in the browser and click Blank spreadsheet. It is the same workshop. On a school computer they sometimes block the sheets.new shortcut — the long address gets through.

Second exercise: two cells, no formula

No counting. Just so the grid stops being empty.

In B1 type course. Enter.
In B2 type Tables with Martin. Enter.
Click B2. The address top left must say B2. In the formula bar there must be Tables with Martin.

Column A has a name, column B the course title. It still does not count anything. But it is no longer an empty grid.

Now you 💪

Go through three checks. For each one tick in your head: do I see it, or not?

You are in Google Sheets, not in Word and not in an empty browser.
In cell A1 is your name. You click A1 — in the formula bar is the same name.
At the top it lights up that the workbook is saved (or at least “Saving…” changed to saved). In Excel on a disk you would have to save by hand — here Drive watches it.

If something is missing: A1 empty? Type the name again and Enter. You do not see “Saved”? Check that you are signed in. A grey grid with no letters A, B, C? You are not in a spreadsheet — you are in a document.

✅

Check: In A1 is your name, in B2 the course title, and at the top it lights up that the workbook is saved. You have a workshop. In the next lesson we will name it and add a second sheet.

What to take from this lesson

A spreadsheet is for numbers and counting. Word is for text. A grid in Word does not count.
We work in the browser at sheets.new. Excel on a disk is not required.
Cell A1 is the first box. The formula bar shows what is in it.
Four projects: grades, pocket money, a survey, a dashboard. We build them in pieces.
Sheets saves itself to Drive. When you change a number, a formula (later) will recalculate the result itself.