Glad I could help. A good friend once told me that if you're doing
something on a computer and find that it's difficult, you're probably
going about it the wrong way.
I'm not sure what they would call what you wanted to do in the help
file, but I'm sure it's there somewhere. I have the same trouble some
times... trying to figure out what to search for. Don't hesitate to ask
next time you have trouble. There are thousands of subscribers on the
OOo list. You'll almost always get the help you need here.
tc
Cary Howe wrote:
Thanks so much. I've stubbornly spent hours today trying to find that one
command. It's easy once you know and seems obvious. I hadn't quite tried that
but I was also working in the wrong direction. Since I wanted info from cell A
to update in cell B I kept trying things A to B where as it turns out it works
B to A.
Thanks for solving one of the great mysteries of the Universe. I have a meeting
tomorrow and it was driving me nuts constant having to manually input all the
updated info.
Cary
Anthony Chilco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hi Cary,
It's almost as simple as click and drag. You want cell two to equal cell
one? Click in cell two. Type an equal sign. Click in cell one. Press
enter. You're done.
tc
Cary Howe wrote:
One massive problem with every spreedsheet software I've ever seen including
the one in Open Office is they assume you already know how to use them. Even
the help assumes you already know their naming conventions and how their
command structure works. Well guess what if I knew how to use it why would I be
digging in help? Unfortunately I'm guessing there isn't even a Dummies book on
Open Office. May be there is? I've been using Spreadsheets for ten years and to
this day all I can do is total a single column of numbers. Now Open Office is
wonderful if I want to add colors or do many fancy formating commands but it
still assumes you know the basics. All I want to do is link two cells so when
one totals the amount updates at another location so it passively updates the
second column. About as basic as you can get yet I don't even know what linking
two cells is called let alone have a clue how to do it. I'm not kidding ten
years and I have yet to be able to figure it out. I don't have
time for a bloody accounting class so I can do a few basic things with a spreed
sheet. I'm shocked the help isn't better since the word processor is amazing
and extremely easy to use. I literally don't need to do anything fancier than
linking a cell total with an entry in a new column. Do I need to get a degree
to be able to do that? Just frustriating that every software out there for
doing spreedsheets assumes prior knowledge. I've used other sheets that other
people have set up but I haven't a clue how to do it myself. In graphics I'm a
high end user but mostly use spreedsheets for basic budgeting. They'd be 1000X
more useful if I could do slightly more with them. I don't even need formulas
just basic linking. Help!!!!!!
Open Office is amazing but the Calc is incomprehensible to the novice. If it
was a graphics software I could probably select Cell A then holding down the
shift key drag it to Cell B and they'd be linked. Office software could learn a
lot from how graphics software works. In some fundimental ways office software
hasn't changed much in ten years or more. Graphics software has made quantum
leaps in the last ten years when it comes to user interfaces. Office software
may have increased functions but they still aren't in anyway intuitive so
there's a huge potential for improvement. You want to blow away Microsoft
Office instead of following it? Make the interface intuitive then they'll be
scrambling to keep up. I should be able to right click on a cell and define it
as a parent then click on a second cell and define it as a child. I could then
while that's buffered click on several locations and create multiple children
to the parent cell. It's how animators tree functions and blows away
the best accounting software on the planet for ease of use and power. In Maya I
can open up the parent tree and manually drag the links around. I should be
able to do the same in a spreadsheet. Like I say spreedsheet are still in the
dark ages. Most of the functions should be drag and drop. Even web pages
linking is child's play. Why can't it be the same for spreedsheets?
Cary
